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In this episode, Henry, Rusty, and William discuss the issue of calling.  Many of us have heard God calling us to a particular purpose.  

Romans 8:28 says “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”  

Show Notes for Episode 12

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by Johnny Shiu

In this episode, Henry, Rusty, and William discuss the issue of calling.  Many of us have heard God calling us to a particular purpose.

Romans 8:28 says “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

To fulfill God’s purpose, we may be individually called to contribute through our lives and work.

In the work context, Rusty reminds us that you can be a Faith Driven Entrepreneur in any sector, whether it is in private, public, or the ministry space.  We look to God for drive and direction.

How do we know that we are being called?  What does it mean to have a calling?

Citing Pastor Tim Keller, William gives us a framework, which consists of three elements:

1. Affinity – what are you naturally drawn to

2. Ability – strengths and weaknesses

3. Opportunity – what’s needed of me

We all have an affinity towards something, whether it is a particular type of work, or industry.  Of course, it is not enough to be attracted to a type of work, we need to play off our strengths while recognizing our own shortfalls.  And all the while it is important to identify opportunities that match the two prior criteria.

Simply put, for our affinity we should “look out”; our ability – “look in”; and opportunity – “look up!”

When we are called God may place a burden in our heart. The burden could be so deep that it keeps us up at night.  We also might feel a deep conviction that no matter what, we must pursue x or y or z.

Now, God may not speak to us audibly.  The calling should not violate scripture or what God represents. This is why it is so important to have a framework that helps guide us.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, some of us may not even know that we have been serving in our calling.  It might not be until we look back that we realize we have been doing what God has called us to do the whole time.

We hope you enjoy and as always, comments and reactions are welcome!

by Henry Kaestner

We started off our week earlier this month with a short video that we found to be a great encouragement.  We love a great, feel good story to kick off a week.

There is much to like here: a church coming around an entrepreneur, and the virtuous continuation of continuing the path of forgiveness and redemption with the hiring others of others in need of a second chance.

My favorite scene?  Alfonso reading Scripture on the roof.

by Jordan Raynor

This is the craziest time in my life. I recently wrote and released a book, born out of leading more than 250,000 Christian entrepreneurs and creatives in the Called to Create ministry. I also lead a venture-backed tech startup called Threshold 360 where we’re on a mission to map the inside of every public location on earth in 360°. And then there is the joyful work I do at home laboring alongside my wonderful wife to raise our two young daughters.

If you bump into me on the street and ask how I’m doing, I’ll likely say “Great!” (which is true), but the whole truth is that I’m exhausted. And I bet you are too. Part of the reason I wrote Called to Create was to inspire a generation of Christians to lean in harder to their work. But if in all our ambition we forget to rest, we’ll miss an unparalleled opportunity to preach the gospel to ourselves and to those around us.

Sabbath as Gift

About a year ago, by the grace of God and a book by John Mark Comer, I started to keep the Sabbath. For me, Sabbath was just an ancient word for a day of the week, not something to actually practice. But the craziness of life caused me to take a closer look at Jesus’s words on rest—and his exchange with the Pharisees in Mark 2 in particular. The Pharisees are asking why Jesus and his disciples are picking grains on their Sabbath walk. Jesus replies, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

If in all our ambition we forget to rest, we’ll miss an unparalleled opportunity to preach the gospel to ourselves and to those around us.

The Sabbath was made for man. Honestly, it wasn’t until I re-read that verse a year ago that I began to see the Sabbath as a gift. To me, the Sabbath had always had legalistic connotations, prompting me (and I suspect many other millennial Christians) to write off the Sabbath entirely.

I didn’t start practicing the art of Sabbath out of conviction or guilt. I started once I realized that rest is a gracious gift from God to give us a break from the relentless demands of this world and our work.

Life-Giving Enjoyment

So what does Sabbath-keeping look like for me and my family? In short, we only do things that are “life-giving,” trying as best we can to cease all “striving” and “productivity.”

For us, that looks like staying off of our phones, eating our favorite foods, spending unhurried time in God’s Word, and being with family and close friends. And perhaps most significantly, temporarily suspending any “productive” conversation. Yes, we talk about our work, but only in the context of how grateful we are for the gift our work is and what the Lord is accomplishing through it.

As my wife and I began to practice Sabbath, it quickly became clear why Jesus said the Sabbath is for man, and not the other way around. The Sabbath is an opportunity to rest from the pressure of the world to constantly accomplish, earn, solve, spend, and do. It’s a day to step back, as God himself did on the seventh day, and enjoy the fruit of our labor. It’s a day to look at our life, our work, and the cross and say with great contentment, “This is enough!” Tim Keller puts it well:

“The purpose of Sabbath is not simply to rejuvenate yourself in order to do more production, nor is it the pursuit of pleasure. The purpose of Sabbath is to enjoy your God, life in general, what you have accomplished in the world through his help, and the freedom you have in the gospel—the freedom from slavery to any material object or human expectation.”

Rest in Jesus

The world offers up careers as one of many means of self-salvation. If you accomplish enough, make enough money, or accumulate enough fame, you will be accepted. You will be okay. You will be “set.” Deep down, this is what all humans crave: peace with ourselves and, ultimately, with our Maker. And so we work insanely hard to achieve this peace and to prove to the world we aren’t a chump.

But as Christians, we know that neither our work, nor any other counterfeit god, can satisfy or save. Jesus Christ is the only One who can bring the salvation the world so desperately desires. When we rest—when we keep the Sabbath—we’re saying to ourselves and to the watching world that while we could squeeze in one more day of productivity, profits, and performance, we don’t need to. We’re okay. We’re satisfied. It’s not our work that is saving us. It’s something else. It’s someone else.

Almost every Sunday, on our drive to church, I repeat these lyrics from “In Christ Alone” to myself over and over again:

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

If we’re doing the work God has called us to, we should be ambitious for it. But let’s also embrace God’s good gift of rest, and thereby preach a powerful sermon to ourselves and to the world that even “when strivings cease,” we stand secure in the love of Christ.

Editor’s Note:  Jordan is a friend of FDE and has partnered with us on this blog, and hopefully many more.  Please note that this post was originally placed on The Gospel Coalition website earlier this year.  Check them out for more relevant content for your entrepreneurial journey

by Adam Metcalf

When it comes to a laid back, yet exciting culture,  it was hard to beat Magnum P.I. (Private Investigator). Not only did he kick it on the 200 acre beachfront estate in Hawaii, known as the Robin’s Nest, he drove around a Ferrari, fought crime with one of the most manly staches you have ever laid eyes on and had a fridge that had a seemingly endless supply of beer. He was one cool dude. But a laid back, exciting culture doesn’t really amount to much unless it is accompanied with prayer and intentionality. That is what “P.I.” should represent for any faith-driven entrepreneur.

I’ve learned in this entrepreneurial journey that there is an easy temptation to be laid back, throw in some excitement and just watch awesome culture happen. This sort of laissez-faire approach almost always ends in disaster. A non-prayerful and non-intentional culture isn’t just a culture that shapes itself, it is a dangerous culture that destroys. This truth was quite evident at Uber, Theranos and Zenefits in 2017. Those are but a few unicorn examples of when culture implodes. There are thousands of others that have imploded at start-ups we’ve never even heard of.

Getting culture right is crucial. It is an absolutely essential aspect to daily life at your company. It profoundly influences retention and it informs future recruitment. It directly impacts the quality of life for each member of the team. According to TinyPulse’s research, 64% of employees don’t feel their company has a strong culture. And according to Fidelity’s research, millennials are willing to give up $7,600 per year to work for a company with great culture. Needless to say, you want to get culture right!

Here are two must-dos for faith-driven entrepreneurs:

1.  Be prayerful

Whether you are starting a company now or you are presently running one, commit yourself to prayer for guidance and direction as to what your culture should look like. God originally created a world in which there was infinite beauty, limitless freedom and eternal peace and joy. And he is bringing it back! So look to Him. He knows a thing or two about great culture. 

Look to faith-driven innovators in the culture space. When we revamped our culture at ZeeMee (a story for another day), I borrowed a lot from what Henry Kaestner implemented at Bandwidth and Matt Rissel put in place at TSheets. Check out an interview with Henry here and read Matt’s credo here.

2. Be Intentional

If you think that culture is just going to happen. You are right. It will happen. But if you aren’t intentional, something bad will happen. A lot of startups make the mistake of thinking that culture is great because they just raised several million dollars. That fresh new office space, those catered lunches, the swag; it is all a part of building a great culture, right? Be careful not to assume your culture is the summation of the perks, benefits and superficial niceties that accompany life in Silicon Valley. These are merely a house of cards that can crumble in an instance. Cultures built on the assumption that the good times will last forever, are naive at best and unethical at worst.

From the beginning, work to establish a core credo of who you are as a company and what you believe. This allows you to build a solid foundation that everyone on the team can cling to when the waters get rough. Make sure every employee knows exactly what you believe and affirm as a company and consistently reiterate it to the team.

Wrapping it up

The next time you are binge watching Magnum P.I. on a Saturday, so for most of you, that will be this weekend. Look past the stache (if that is possible), look past the beauty of the Robin’s Nest and get private investigator out of your mind. Think prayer and intentionality. There is so much to be written on culture. This barely scratches the surface. I am a padewon to the padewons. So definitely do yourself a huge favor and check out some of the masters linked above.

Editor’s Note:  Adam is another great friend of FDE and of Inklings (he’s been instrumental in helping to encourage a local meetup of faith driven entrepreneurs in Northern California).  His post is another in a series of those that we hope to solicit from young entrepreneurs who are in the throes of launching their enterprise and feel that they have a story to share with others as a means of encouragement.

Adam is the Co-Founder of ZeeMee and a faith-driven entrepreneur in training. His views on Magnum P.I.’s stache are his own and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of the blog.

A pastor is in a unique position to influence his leaders who are in the marketplace in many different ways, and this week we turn out attention to how a pastor might support entrepreneurship within his congregation.

This week, Henry, and William interview special guest, Pastor Andy Wood of Echo Church, about his journey in ministry and the world of entrepreneurship. 

Show Notes for Episode 11