This content was originally published here by Two Ten Magazine, the Marketplace Ministry Magazine presenting Purpose, Perspective & Perseverance.

— by Mark Whitaker

One of the most well known of Jesus’ parables is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. A father has two sons, one of which asked for an advance on his inheritance. He then ventures out into the wicked world to indulge in all sorts of worldly pleasures until he runs out of money. With nowhere else to go and head hung low, he returns home to beg for his father’s mercy.

As the parable goes, his father is overjoyed at his son’s return and orders the boy’s brother to get him cleaned up with new clothes and to prepare a feast for him. Understandably, the brother can’t believe that his father was not only allowing the prodigal, or reckless, son to return to him after wasting all of his inheritance, but was celebrating him! There are three points of view to this parable; that of the prodigal son, the brother and the father.

It’s clear to see that the father represents God and the brothers represent mankind. Many of us may think that we are the “good” brother, but in reality, we are all reckless with the inheritance that we’re given and require the mercy of a loving Father. For Norm Miller, he was all too eager to indulge in the pleasures of the world.

Norm was born and raised in Galveston, Texas, and his father owned a successful gas/service station in the middle of town. Although he was a hard–working, industrious man, he had a weakness for alcohol. Norm was a mischievous young man whose primary focus was when and where the next party was. Norm wasn’t really interested in school but realized that if he wanted to avoid being drafted into military service, he would have to go to college: the lesser of two evils in his mind. He enrolled in North Texas State in Denton, Texas after a friend of his told him what a great party school it was.

North Texas State was located in a “dry” county (selling alcohol was prohibited), so he and some of his buddies had the brainstorm that they could make money by buying alcohol in the neighboring county and reselling it in Denton for a premium. Norm had a keen eye for seeing lucrative business opportunities.

Their operation was an immediate success and soon grew to the point that they needed to expand. They rented the local armory hall for “dances” to front their burgeoning business named the “Hi-Low Club”. It eventually grew too large and was forced to shut down. It was during his college years that he met his future wife Anne. She was also from Galveston, and they immediately hit it off.

Norm graduated from college without much of a plan for his future and wound up selling encyclopedias door-to-door. His father sold his service station and asked if he would join him in opening a battery distributorship in Memphis for Interstate Batteries, that had just started their national distributorship program. Norm jumped at the chance and moved to Memphis.

Norm and Anne were married and settled down in Memphis, and she began to realize the extent of his drinking problem. He would travel extensively as part of his job as a salesman for Interstate, and his nights were spent partying. His daughter Tracey was born in 1964 and Anne was practically raising her on her own. His life was starting to tick, unfortunately, just like a time bomb.

At Interstate Batteries, Norm’s gift of salesmanship was shining. He was working hard, and the home office in Dallas took notice and offered him a position there. It was a terrific opportunity for Norm, so he and Anne relocated to Dallas. The more that Norm dove into his work, the more release he sought in the bottle. By the time his son was born in 1968, not only was he drinking heavily on the weekends, but he was also hitting the bars on the way home from work. Norm felt his personal life spinning out of control even as his professional life was skyrocketing.

Out of Control

One night in 1974, he was drinking well past midnight and was driving himself home when he was stopped by a sheriff. Through some fast talking and fortunate circumstances, he wasn’t arrested. He already had his license suspended in Texas for two DUI’s but was carrying a Tennessee license. He made it home and woke up a few hours later, too hung over to go to work, so he called in sick. As he lay in bed, he realized that his drinking was destroying everything that was precious to him; his wife, children and his career. Although he had tried to stop drinking in the past, he was never able to stop; he was an alcoholic. In that moment of realization and desperation, he cried out to God to save him and to completely remove the compulsion to drink from him. In that instant, he felt the presence of God overwhelm him and release his burdens. Two days later, he started attending AA meetings and never had another drink of alcohol.

Norm met some people in AA who began to talk to him about his spiritual life. Although he had gone to church as a child, it never became a part of his life. He was initially skeptical of the concepts of the Bible, but after reading More Than a Carpenter and Evidence that Demands a Verdict, both by Josh McDowell, he began to understand the truths that were contained in God’s Word. He then began to read and study the Bible incessantly; the more he read, the more it made sense to him that every word of it was God’s inspired word, and it was coming alive to him. He started attending a Bible study, and one night after the study he talked with the leader about being born again and surrendering his life to Christ. He felt the prompt of the Holy Spirit, prayed with the leader and made Jesus Christ the Lord of his life. It was a pivotal moment for Norm. He was born again spiritually, and his physical life was experiencing a rebirth as well. He rededicated himself to his family, and his home life blossomed with his wife and children all giving their lives to the Lord.

John Searcy was the founder of Interstate Batteries and was a devout Christian. He and his business were guided by biblical principles: the most prominent was the Golden Rule found in Matthew 7:12 “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Norm’s brothers Tommy and Jimmy had joined the company while their father was a distributor in Memphis, and they all moved into senior management roles within the company, with John Searcy providing excellent mentoring and training to prepare them to one day take over the company.

Leading by Example

In 1978 John Searcy felt that it was time for him to retire and hand the reins over to Norm. He had been with the company for over twenty years and was ready to follow in the path that had been prepared for him. His creative energy would propel them to the leading replacement battery in the nation. They became the sponsor of The Great American Road Race, a cross country trek from Los Angeles to Indianapolis for cars produced prior to World War II. They coordinated the end of the race to fall on the Friday evening before the Indianapolis 500 and arranged for the cars to circle the track upon their arrival. It was a marketing stroke of genius! In subsequent years it grew in popularity and was covered by all of the major news networks, spawning a whole logistical team just to handle that annual event.

As the company grew to include over 200,000 distributors nationwide, Norm and his management team were diligently seeking the Lord’s will for their business and sought to honor Him in all that they did. They started a corporate chaplain program to address the spiritual needs of their employees and distributors and sponsored mission trips locally and abroad. At their bi-annual distributor conferences, they end on a Sunday, which gives them a chance to invite an influential Christian leader to speak to the group. Over the years, thousands of men and women have given their hearts to the Lord at their conferences.

One of the most prodigious relationships that Norm developed was with Joe Gibbs. Joe contacted Norm in 1991 with an offer of a partnership on a racing team that he was thinking of assembling. Not only was it a tremendous business opportunity to partner with a winner of Joe Gibbs’ caliber (he is a four-time Super Bowl winner), it was an opportunity to partner with a fellow believer. The Joe Gibbs/Interstate racing team, with its neon green and black #18 car, won its first Daytona 500 in 1993 in what may be the most exciting finish in the history of the legendary race, with Dale Jarrett edging out Dale Earnhardt for the victory.

His Second Act

While Norm is no longer the president of Interstate Batteries, he still remains as Chairman of the Board and actively pursues evangelical outreach opportunities. As part of his daily devotions, Norm has read My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers for over seventeen years. Each day that he read the devotion, he would write down where he was that day along with a few notes. In March of 2008 as he wrote, Norm recalled, “It occurred to me that I would soon be turning seventy years old, and I began to wonder if I had been giving my all to reach people for Christ. The bible verse Acts 1:8 kept echoing in my mind; ‘but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’”

He considered his Jerusalem to be the Dallas-North Texas region and thought to himself, “Well, I’ve been a pretty good witness; I’ve discipled people, given copies of the Jesus Film out door to door and volunteered with numerous ministry and outreach organizations. I’ve done pretty well in my ‘Jerusalem’.” The next thoughts that occurred to him were,

“Have you gone for broke? Are there still people that need to hear about the Lord? And is there something more that you can do?”Norm Miller

Norm realized that he hadn’t “gone for broke” for the Lord and that maybe he could find a way to reach more people.

As he dug deeper into the idea, he thought “If I were to do this, what would it look like? What would I do if I wanted to try to sell more batteries?” He reasoned that if he wanted to sell more batteries in today’s society, he would launch a media campaign. He then contacted his friends at e3 Partners Ministry, who he had worked with for over twenty years. They had recently hired a man who had been a national advertising executive. Norm met with them, and his idea was met with instant enthusiasm. Within a few weeks they developed the lead line “I Am Second”.

They decided to approach some people that they knew collectively to record their testimonies on video with the idea of hosting them online. Some of the first included Norm’s friend Joe Gibbs and Tony Dungy as well as Stephen Baldwin and Josh Hamilton. The dramatic cinematography coupled with the gripping testimonies were an instant hit, reaching viral status. Connections started rolling in with testimonies from celebrities and sports heroes to everyday people, each with a compelling story to tell and a message of how God had helped them through some of life’s most dire circumstances. To date, the “I Am Second” web site has been visited over ten million times in over 56 countries. They now also offer devotionals, group study guides and other ministry resources. For Norm, it’s about being obedient to what God has called him to do and relying on God’s almighty power to see it through.

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[Special thanks to TwoTenMag.com for the cover photo]

We continue to count down the Top 100 Books for Faith Driven Entrepreneurs with…

To Change the World

by James Davidson Hunter

The call to make the world a better place is inherent in the Christian belief and practice. But why have efforts to change the world by Christians so often failed or gone tragically awry? And how might Christians in the 21st century live in ways that have integrity with their traditions and are more truly transformative? In To Change the World, James Davison Hunter offers persuasive–and provocative–answers to these questions. Hunter begins with a penetrating appraisal of the most popular models of world-changing among Christians today, highlighting the ways they are inherently flawed and therefore incapable of generating the change to which they aspire. Because change implies power, all Christian eventually embrace strategies of political engagement.

Click on the book cover to check out the Reviews and Purchase at Amazon

We continue to count down the Top 100 Books for Faith Driven Entrepreneurs with…

The Motive

by Pat Lencioni

In what may be his edgiest page-turner to date, Lencioni thrusts his readers into a day-long conversation between rival CEOs. Shay Davis is the CEO of Golden Gate Alarm, who, after just a year in his role, is beginning to worry about his job and is desperate to figure out how to turn things around. With nowhere else to turn, Shay receives some hard-to-swallow advice from the most unlikely and unwanted source―Liam Alcott, CEO of a more successful security company and his most hated opponent.

Listen to our podcast with Pat Lencioni here!

Click on the book cover to check out the Reviews and Purchase at Amazon

This content was published by LeTourneau University’s Center for Faith and Work. Please check out their page for more great content.

— by Bill Peel

It surprises some to discover that retirement is not a biblical concept. 

In his book, An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life, Jeff Hannan helps people make the most of what can be the most influential time of life. “People talk about retirement like it’s supposed to be an endless vacation—sandy beaches, social security benefits, unlimited possibilities.” But what if God is guiding you to a second vocation rather than an endless vacation?

Case in Point: Righteous Rides

After long careers in aerospace and automobile manufacturing, Mark Reighard and Bret Byus decided to do something they love for people they care about. It all began in the 1960s when Mark and Bret met in Sunday school and discovered their mutual love for all things mechanical. That love led them to LeTourneau University where Mark earned a degree in Materials Joining and Bret in Auto Technology. Rather than thinking about retirement as well-deserved leisure after years in the corporate world, they looked at life through the lens of vocation: what is God calling us to do?

In 2007, while still in their corporate jobs, Mark and Bret formed Righteous Rides, bringing together their love for cars, their business and technical expertise, and their passion to serve missionary families. In their experience with missionaries over the years, they identified a recurring problem and wanted to help: Missionaries need reliable transportation when they are back in the States on furlough. 

As Mark tells the story, “We were sitting around one day, talking about what we could do that would use the skills God’s given us. Because of our friendship with missionaries, we knew there was a need for affordable, reliable transportation, so we said, ‘Let’s buy a van and let them use it.'”

Fast forward 12 years. When I toured the Righteous Rides facility just outside St. Louis, Mark had recently left Boeing to serve as full-time Executive Director. When I stepped in the beautiful showroom it was clear their operation is first class.

Righteous Rides’ Vision is that every international missionary has access to affordable and stress-free stateside transportation.

Our Mission is to provide care and cars to missionaries on home assignment… in a manner worthy of God.

What does it mean to provide cars “in a manner worthy of God?” It means that Righteous Rides provides spotless, pristinely refurbished, reliable transportation ready for the road–insured, maintenance covered, backed with a 24-hour hotline and 10 hubs across the country. It also means each is family bathed in prayer, and when they pick up their van, it’s filled with care packages that include personalized backpacks for each child. As missionary families move from place to place, Mark said, “Nothing feels like home for the kids. We want them to know that this van is the one place that belongs to them while they are here in the States on furlough.”

Righteous Rides has served over a thousand missionary families, from 125 different countries, who have logged 18 million miles in RR vehicles. A fleet of 149 Chrysler minivans transports families across the country.

Each year Righteous Rides receives hundreds of requests they cannot fill. They dream about a fleet of 4,000 to 5,000 vehicles. To learn more about Righteous Rides and how you can join their efforts by volunteering your skills (mechanical or otherwise), donating a vehicle for resale, or by a tax-deductible donation, visit the Righteous Rides website.

What About You?

So, what are you planning to do with what could be the most influential season of your life? Golf, the beach, and the mountains are great, but what is God calling you to invest your life in. For some, your greatest contribution to God’s kingdom will be to continue right where you are serving Him in your workplace. For others it may be raising a grandchild or caring for aging parents. For those who have mandatory retirement or have the option not to earn a paycheck, possibilities abound as volunteers, entrepreneurs, mentors, and teachers.

It’s never too early to consider how you can best serve God. At the Center for Faith & Work, we’re ready to help you think through the next season and chart the course ahead.

“Whatever you do,” Paul says, “whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:17).

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[Special thanks to Simon Migaj on Unsplash for the cover photo]

This content was originally published here by Two Ten Magazine, the Marketplace Ministry Magazine presenting Purpose, Perspective & Perseverance.

— by Jessica Burchfield

Fear. We all know it. We all face it. Fear is the common struggle of humanity. “Will I be successful?” “Will this job provide for my family?” “Will I have enough to pay my bills this month?” At one time or another, we have all asked these questions and more. Jon Acuff, popular author, blogger, and motivational speaker, recently spoke to TwoTen about overcoming the giant: fear.

Jon Acuff is a Wall Street Journal and New York Times best-selling author, the popular blogmaster of StuffChristiansLike.net, and a motivational speaker on Dave Ramsey’s Speaker’s Group team. He is the father of two beautiful children. He is a regular contributor to CNN.com. He is a social media guru. 

How in the world did he get so awesome?

In his book Start, Jon Acuff has crafted a formula that depicts the average man’s journey to awesome through the conquering of fear. “Since the dawn of time, every awesome life has gone through the same five stages: learning, editing, mastering, harvesting, guiding,” says Jon in the first chapter of his book. Throughout the course of his narrative, Jon describes that these five stages may look different for every person, but in the end, the building blocks of an awesome life only appear when we are willing to confront the average.

The cover of Start gives three distinct directives to the individual seeking awesomeness within their professional or personal life: Punch Fear in the Face; Escape Average; and, Do Work that Matters. By embracing these three ideals, anyone can effectively break away from the average life in favor of the awesome. 

Punch Fear in the Face

“In the fear chapter [of Start], I talk about two things that you should do with fear: write it down and share it,” said Jon. “A third thing I think you should do is refute it. By that I mean not to get entangled in it, not to argue with it—that’s just a waste of time—but refute it. Refute it with truth.” Truth, as defined in John 17:17, is the Word of God. We cannot be successful in business or life without the counsel and confrontation of Scripture. 

Jon describes fear as the voices in our heads telling us we cannot accomplish anything, let alone awesomeness. When ready to confront the voices promising a destiny of failure, we must take the first step towards conquering fear: we have to write it down. 

“Voices [in your head] are invisible bullies, and they hate when you make them visible,” said Jon on his website, www.jonacuff.com. “The best way to [make them visible] is to dress them up with words. To write them down in a simple notebook. They can’t stand to be documented, because the minute they are, you can see how stupid they are. Lies hate the light of day.”

Another proven way to conquer fear is to share that fear with others. Jon encourages individuals to not only confront fear, but to share it. “Don’t try to go it alone,” he says. “Write down all the fears you have, try and identify them, then share them with others. Fear is tricky because it is repetitive. You won’t have ten thousand fears in your lifetime, you’ll have a handful that disguise themselves in different ways, but that all come back to certain things. Identify [those fears] and find truth in them.”

Within the business world, it is easy to become isolated and to feel alone. Sharing both the keys to success and the fear of failure are monumental assets to punching fear in the face and achieving awesomeness. 

Escape Average

Jon Acuff didn’t become a celebrity overnight; rather, he embraced the abrasiveness of change and escaped an average life. Having known that he wanted to be a writer since the third grade, Jon pursued all things grammar and found himself a senior copywriter with no place to go but into a Creative Director position. “I hit a ceiling at my job,” he said. “I knew management of people wasn’t what I wanted to do.” 

It was at that point that he decided to step out of his comfort zone and grab the brass ring of awesomeness. Beginning with grassroots social media, Jon has transformed his career from a senior copywriter into a self-made celebrity. 

“I started the blog, and one of the big things for me was a comment from an atheist that said, ‘I’ve never seen faith talked about this honestly. If I wasn’t an atheist, this is the kind of Christian I would want to be.’ What was snarky and silly became something that could be bigger. Writing came naturally, but that doesn’t mean it was without work or grind. I always tell people that you work harder at what you love than what you like,” said Jon. 

By forging his own path, Jon found his niche. Social media became his platform to make a difference in the world. With over 5 million followers, his blog now reaches into the homes and hearts of America—something he never dreamed could happen when he first began a career as a copywriter. 

“I don’t like the concept of reading a business book that says you have to do it this way or it doesn’t count or it isn’t right,” he said when asked about a generic plan for awesomeness. “Our culture fragments life—we think that we can’t take lessons from one part of our lives and apply it to another. I always try to encourage people to read books, listen to speeches, read magazines through the filter of you. The talent we have the hardest time recognizing is our own. If it’s your thing, [if it’s your talent], then you have the full wind of God behind you.”

By identifying his own unique talents and interests, developing his personal voice, punching the fear of failure in the face, and embracing the awesomeness of his own abilities, Jon Acuff escaped average.

Do Work that Matters

What matters to you? What are you doing that matters? To live an awesome life, these are the questions that need to be answered. Being awesome is more than simply knowing you’re awesome; being awesome means that your world, your business, and your family know you’re more than average. It is about making a difference.

For Jon, the decision to join Dave Ramsey’s Speakers Group was more than just another successful career move. Joining the team was a purposeful choice to do work that mattered.  On his blog, he answers the question about why he joined the team. 

“I wanted to be a leader. Not a leader who leads on stage, but not at home. That’s not a leader, that’s an actor. Not a leader who speaks about truth but doesn’t really live it out. I wanted to be an honest, passionate, and generous leader.” – Jon Acuff

“I had the suspicion that Dave Ramsey was that kind of leader and could help me become one too.” 

By becoming a motivational speaker for Dave Ramsey, by publishing books on fear, by writing blogs on awesomeness, Jon Acuff is showing the world how to matter. He is living an example of how to start being awesome today. He has found a work that matters for eternity and has embraced it. Truly, the countless millions of blog followers, book readers, and business achievers that have benefitted from his story are only a testament to his awesomeness. 

But, he’s nowhere near done. 

“For me, I don’t know what it means to have arrived! For every one person that reads one of my books, there’s an additional billion that haven’t heard. I haven’t arrived. I’m not done.” 

The business world is full of possibilities of failure, but refusing to break away from that fear is a choice that results in a lifetime of mediocrity. Fear is either a policy for average or a platform for awesome. Today, embrace that awesome by punching fear in the face, by escaping the average life, and by doing the work that matters for eternity!

——

[Special thanks to TwoTenMag.com for the cover photo]

Faith&Co. Releases Season 2 – How does faith shape the way companies treat workers?

Love the work of Seattle Pacific and their film series, Faith&Co. Many of them are scattered across the top of our list of the Top 100 Videos for Faith Driven Entrepreneurs.

We’re delighted to announce the release of their second season, Serving Employees. This season considers how Christian faith shapes the way organizations engage with and manage employees. Filmed at eight companies across the United States, these films feature stories of people wrestling with the practical challenges of implementing faith-based principles in the workplace. The films will change the way you think about your employees.

Look for many of them to make our way into an updated Top 100 in the coming weeks!