Note: Thanks to some recent developments, we have quite a few new readers who may not really be familiar with what Nourish The Dream is all about… so we felt it was time for an introduction of sorts. Enjoy!

Has God Called You To Business?

A little over ten years ago, I stepped out of my full-time job as a Pastor and went full-time into the business my wife & I had started several years earlier. It was a gigantic leap of faith for us at the time, but we were responding to a strong sense of calling and the belief that we had clear direction from God.

The problem was that the idea of being “called” to do something other than “ministry” (as we understood it) didn’t jibe with our training. After all, once you were “called to the ministry,” the gifts & calling are without repentance, right?

An Anointing for Business?

We were in for a few paradigm shifts, some of which had been bubbling below the surface in me for a number of years. One of the first ones that crystallized for me was that the “anointing” of God isn’t reserved for people behind a pulpit or leading worship or working on the mission field.

Today, I would argue that there’s an anointing available for anyone doing what they were created to do.

Business may not seem very “spiritual” on the surface, but there are numerous examples in Scripture of people who were anointed to do very “non-spiritual” things. Metalworking (Exodus 31) and killing giants (1 Samuel 17) are just a couple of quick ones that come to mind.

“But business deals with ‘filthy lucre’!” some may argue.

It’s true that “greed” is going to come up in this discussion. We might as well get it out of the way. Anyone who has a greed problem or deals with love of money needs to take it to God and get rid of it. But I would argue that more people struggle with “love of money” and misplaced trust in money when they don’t have any or have no means of getting their needs met than those who have some. Perhaps that’s a debate for a different day, but you can think about it. Either way, without the manifest Grace of God, any fleshly lust can consume a person regardless of their position, calling, daily work or status in life. Enough said.

Staying Away From Evil

That said, it’s time to address something that’s a real problem with the Church today. To some extent, it’s been an issue for hundreds of years, but it seems that in the United States it really matured in the latter half of the 20th Century. Somewhere along the line, we decided that certain elements of society were inherently “evil” and Christians should stay away from them. Politics, Hollywood and business are big examples.

After years of study, I’m more convinced than ever that God doesn’t think like this. Quite the opposite, in fact. From Scripture, it’s clear that God is trying to invade every corner of society and infiltrate it with His Kingdom. (If you need a Scripture to start with, let’s take Matthew 28 back out and study the Great Commission.)

But we’ve raised a few generations of believers who don’t see things that way, so we have some unlearning to do.

And those who—like me 10 years ago—have a sense of calling or anointing where business is concerned, need to be retrained with a new Biblical foundation for work.

We also need relationships with others who share our calling.

We need to be authenticated in our callings and allowed to dream about not only what we’re built to do here on the earth, but also about what a future would look like with believers in every corner of society who are authenticated and functioning in their callings.

Wow… what a dream!

My friend… this isn’t just a dream born in the hearts of some radical people. This dream was born in the heart of God. It’s His dream… and it’s time for us to bring it to life!

Care to join me?

If this resonates with you, don’t miss your opportunity to connect with others like you in Tampa, FL March 30th & 31st, 2012. This will be 2 days of life-changing teaching, training, equipping & inspiration from Godly business leaders who taken major territory for the Kingdom and unabashedly created millions of dollars in profits along the way! Check out the details now!

Hat tip: Marcus Goodyear

CNN talks about the Faith At Work Movement and even manages to talk with one of its actual leaders (Os Hillman). The story is worth a quick read, although it focuses a bit heavily on the legal implications of religion in the workplace. They also manage to connect with David W. Miller, the head of Yale University’s Center for Faith and Culture.

You can catch a one-hour audio interview that I did for ChristianBusinessDaily.com in January with Os Hillman here (membership required).

Tune in to CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 tonight!
Airing between 10:00 pm and midnight Friday 12/15

CNN spent some time with the Tampa C12 group and Bart Azzarelli of Dallas 1 Construction and Development. The story will be aired on the provocative show Anderson Cooper 360 sometime between 10:00 p.m. to midnight Friday, December 15. We encourage you to tune in!

A gigantic “Thank You” to everyone involved in the first ever “Nourish The Dream” event! The feedback from attendees and sponsors alike has all been very positive. We appreciate everyone who invested time, energy and money in making this event a success!

Keep your eye on this space!
There is more to come! Whether you’re an employee, manager, business owner or executive, you’ll find articles and information as well as first notification of upcoming events.

A few questions we’ve been getting:

Will there be another Nourish The Dream event?

• Yes. Plans are underway for 2007.

How can I get involved?

• The best thing to do is to “Subscribe” to updates to this website. (You can easily do so by choosing the “Subscribe” link at the left or clicking the “Email Updates” button at the top of most of the pages on this site. If you have an RSS reader, point it to our URL for RSS 2.0 or Atom feeds.)
• You may also post comments to the posts on this page. This is a great way to facilitate discussion!
• You may also contact us

I’d like to network with other Christian businesspeople. How can I do this?

• We’d like to hear from others that think this would be a good idea. Please post a comment if you’re interested.

I missed the first “Nourish The Dream” event. Is anything else coming up that I would be interested in?

• The Southwest Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce has an important event on November 30, 2006 in Fort Myers, FL. Visit http://power06.org for more details. Tell ‘em we sent you!