TimHowey.Com

Web Bonus - Bottom Line on Career (Pt.2)

For a double web-bonus...

• World's Worst Boss -- You ought to google or bing this phrase and check out the painful stories from office-warriors.  I had a hard time picking which ones to share.
• The Office (UK) -- I've been catching up on this short-lived series on YouTube. It was just as painful as the US series, with the same characters & story lines. Again, there is a terminate-able offense in every episode. (Did I say painful? Why do I love the painful pregnant pauses?)
• Dilbert -- This is the best cartoon in history...with another TERRIBLE boss: "the pointy-haired boss." Scott Adams did what I did for a living: IT. I could relate to Dilbert. :-)

Web Bonus - Bottom Line on Career

I loved yesterday on so many levels.

• Ladies Worship Team -- Wow. That was uh-maze-ing. The ladies that led worship together have an incredible gift, their voices blended so well, & God was there! "Point of Grace" has nothing on them. It's time to get a bus & have them tour the country! :-)
• Yesuparam Bandela & John Jacobs -- Hearing from Yesu & his work with the Gospel Association of India was outstanding. The story of his father, his father's stabbing & martyrdom, & Yesu's call to the ministry was an incredible mixture of tragedy, forgiveness, redemption, & God's grace. And it was great hearing from John, CIO of JE Dunn, on what it was like for a fellow Johnson Countian & Gracer to minister in India for 2 weeks.
• God's "Career Shift" -- The topics we touched on yesterday fundamentally changed how I viewed my career at Black & Veatch years ago.
• • Our God is a God of creativity & work
  • God created people in his own image, with the same need & capacity for creativity & work
  • No matter who we THINK we work for, our TRUE supervisor is Jesus
  • No matter WHAT we think we do for a living, our TRUE vocation is to be Jesus ambassador, missionary, pastor, & priest to our workplace
• Cutting Room Floor -- I had to leave several passages out of our conversation, but to see our careers from God's perspective, check these out:
• • The bondservant-master relationship (Eph 6:5-9, Tit 2:9-10, 1Tim 6:1-2, 1Pet 2:18-25)
  • Our finances are to fund our ministry (2Th 3:10-11, 1Tim 5:8, Eph 4:28)
  • Check out the hero in this story. It's General Naaman's wife's servant girl who exemplified grace, love, forgiveness, & speaking God's message in her workplace (2 Kings 5)
• A Transformed Family -- A mother grabbed me last week after service, broken about the type of environment that had emerged in her home. She was owning the responsibility & desiring to change. We prayed together & I shared some Scriptures with her. This week she came back & she was glowing. Her focus, attitude, & home environment had been transformed by God!

Next week's topic is "The Bottom Line on Health."  Never had a talk on this. I'm PUMPED about it!

Know of any Job Openings?

Hey guys.

If you either (a) know of any job openings out there, or (b) are looking for a job out there, make sure you post it to our Grace Church Job Connection site on Facebook.

Thanks!

Web Bonus - Essential Tacklebox

Yesterday we closed out the series we've been talking about for the last six weeks...a great series... ummmm... (silence)... "Deadliest Catch"!  (One-who-will-not-be-named forgot our series title in 3rd service yesterday.)  :-)

Our topic was "The Essential Tacklebox" from Acts 18:1-11, giving everyone the essential tools to address:

• How do you graciously raise the issue of spiritual things/God in a conversation?
• How do you bring up the subject of Jesus in a way that fosters healthy dialogue?
• How do you know when it's time to drop the subject?
• What is "success" when it comes to sharing our faith?

Here are some "thots" on yesterday...

• Must Reads -- I referenced 2 books yesterday by Carmen Mayell & Ravi Zacharias.  I blogged about them before here.
• Ravi Time -- I also posted 2 entries after a live session with Ravi earlier this year.  You can find them here & here.
• Entrepreneurs & BAM -- I referenced a trend in the Church today where God is using entrepreneurs to start businesses in cultures which are closed to the traditional missionary. It's called BAM.  Here's one place that talks about it.
• Ask an Athiest -- Brad Johnson sent me a link to an interesting USA Today article called "How to Sell Christianity? Ask an Athiest."
• The Power of Questions -- I referenced some powerful questions from Carmen Mayell yesterday, to encourage dialogue (tr. "reasoned" in Acts 18:4), not monologue:
• • Can I ask you a couple questions I've been thinking about recently?
  • Do you believe there's a God, & if so can He be known?
  • What brought you to those beliefs?
  • Have you considered the claims of Jesus as to his role in the know-ability of God?

Marketplace Reverberations

During last Sunday's talk, we learned about the "higher calling" that God has given to each of us who spends 40-50-60 hours per week in the marketplace.  We also talked about 4 stages of "self-actualization" people undergo in the marketplace, as they embrace their "higher calling" there.

I keep hearing ripple-effects from our topic last week.  Here are a couple comments: 

• From Kelli Mounce -- "Tim, I wanted to thank you for your message yesterday! Already (and even on a Monday) I have a new perspective and more importantly a new purpose when I look at the job I do! I was even able to share your message and encourage a friend that I knew was struggling in the marketplace!"
• From Randy Jones -- "Hi Tim. Hope you are having a good week. I just wanted to let you know how much your message from last Sunday has stuck with me this week. I was telling my wife, over breakfast this morning, how amazed I was at how much "back-spacing" I have done while writing work related emails this week. Your message was great and I was truly convicted. Just thought I would share this with you. Have a great week."

Web Bonus - Your Fishing Hole

Well I couldn't wait to post about today's topic.  I taught from Colossians 3:17-4:6 on God's desire for us to fully embrace our Divine Calling to be missionaries in our marketplace.  The "marketplace" is a catch-all term for a variety of sectors: business, education, government, not-for-profit, or stay-at-home-parent.

So many things to talk about here:

• Marketplace Miracles -- I referenced one of the facts I learned from the book, "Anointed for Business", this week.  Of the 40 supernatural events recorded in the book of Acts, only 1 of them occurred in a religious context.  And that happened in the entryway/gate of the Temple.  The other 39 of them all occurred in the marketplace/home, where God wants to work in our lives.
• Marketplace Reference -- Our Student Ministries past, Josh Krzanak, referenced Acts 17:17 this morning which tells the story of Paul witnessing both in the synagogues (religious contexts) and the marketplace (secular contexts).
• My Math Blunder -- Those of you in 1st worship heard me mention that the average person who works 5 hours/week times 250 days/year = 12,500 work-hours/year. (Huh???) My mind obviously misfired.  I should have multiplied 50 hours/week times 50 work-weeks = 2500 hours/year. (Supposedly, I went to Stanford to get an engineering degree!) Thank you to the new couple to Grace (3 times I think) who grabbed me after 1st worship to lovingly correct me.
• Christian-Movie Math -- Regardless, I still think it's way cool that our lives in the marketplace (2500 hours/year) are the equivalent of making our co-workers watch 1250 2-hour Christian movies. In this case, our daily lives are the movie-topic, & God is the movie-star of each 2-hour movie of our life.
• Waking-Hours-Percentage Math -- With my earlier mistake on the hours/year, you might be wondering where I got almost 45% of our waking hours are in the marketplace.  Here's the math:
• • Assume you sleep 7 hours/day
  • 7 days/week * 17 waking-hours/day = 119 waking-hours/week
  • 50 work-hours/week ÷ 119 waking-hours/week = 42% of our waking-lives are in the marketplace
    
• An Online Worshiper -- Kevin Allen posted this note on my Facebook page after service: "Was good to 'attend' virtually today---good words!"
• Deadliest Catch Video -- If you want to watch the short video we showed to kick off the message, check it out here on YouTube.  It's the Season 4 intro.
• Accepting the Call -- At the end of our 3rd worship today, I wondered if I should have extended an invitation to everyone to "accept the call" to be a missionary in their marketplace.  Maybe even pray over them too.  (Maybe in a couple weeks...)
• Stay-At-Home-Mom Direction -- Loved the transparency of @mamasada, a stay-at-home-mom, after service this morning: "While I don't think my job is a colossal waste of time @TimHowey, message still timely. Col 4:6 Smacked me upside the head!! In a good way."
• Josh's Direction -- One of our regulars at Grace, a man named Josh, came to me after service saying that he had very recently been questioning his whole role regarding being called to minister to people in the marketplace.  (That's his profession.)  He said his prayer were answered today, particularly by the Scriptures of Colossians 3-4, which gave him a framework from which to view his ministry. Awesome!!
• Josh's Baptism -- Josh also mentioned to me that he had been thinking about being baptized for some time and just recently, his two friends in ministry baptized him.  That's great!!

Calling all men! Don't forget to register here for the Men's/Father/Son Campout in the next couple days.  The campout will be June 25-26.

Anointed for Business

Last night, I read the book "Anointed for Business" by Ed Silvoso.  Jeff Reglin put it in my hands.  Very cool book.  Ed's goal is to let people know that whatever job you happen to hold is far more than a J-O-B.  It is a Divine Calling...a God-ordained opportunity to be much more than a light to this world...to use your influence in the marketplace (business, education, or government) to transform this world.

Here are three of my favorite quotes:

"The book of Acts unfolds the story of believers who did more than tell people about Jesus in the marketplace. They also witnessed a steady stream of signs and wonders. In fact, only one of the 40 extraordinary manifestations of God's power recorded in Acts happened in a religious venue... Today millions of men and women are similarly called to full-time ministry in business, education and government -- the marketplace... Unfortunately many of these marketplace Christians fell like second-class citizens when compared to people who serve full-time in a church or missionary context. This should not be the case..." (p.16)

"Let God show you that your parish, your congregation, your flock is in fact the marketplace. There is a purpose and a destiny for you there. You are part of a movement God has designed to bring His kingdom to the heart of the city." (p.62)

"For a city to be transformed, complete change has to come to the marketplace, and Christian businesspeople must play a key role. What exactly is that role? The role is always determined by the kind of relationship Christians have with the marketplace. The four levels are:

1. to be a Christian in the marketplace,
2. to be a Christian who applies Biblical principles in the marketplace,
3. to be a Christian who does business in the fullness and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and
4. to be a Christian committed to the total transformation of the marketplace."

"The fourth level represents those who, after they have experienced God's transforming power in their business, see themselves on a mission to transform the marketplace." (pp.110-111)

Grace Church Job Connection

Grace Church has created a new group on Facebook called "Grace Church Job Connection".  Join the group!

If you HAVE a job opening for someone, just post the job opening there.

If you NEED a job, make sure you check out the site on the regular basis.

Let's see if we can use this to make some job connections at Grace!

Halftime Event

Hello to all the "People-Beyond-Halftime-in-Life" crowd,

Three of our leaders at Grace (Phil Royston, Michael Wilson, & Dean Callison) wanted me to pass along an 2-hour event that they will be attending together on Thursday, February 11, at the Doubletree in Overland Park.  Lloyd Reeb will be the speaker.

So -- if you want to find out more information about the event -- and spend a couple hours before work in a vision casting time with some leaders from Grace, click here.

-Tim

2 Job Openings

We have some career opportunities opening up at Grace Church.  We are currently looking to hire 2 people:

1. A Youth Pastor -- to lead our Middle & High School Ministries
2. A Children's Minister -- to lead the day-to-day operations of our Children's Ministries

If you know anyone who would be interested, their first step is to send a resume to careers@graceks.org.

And be praying we discern who the right people are...the people that God has ALREADY decided HE wants in those roles.  Thanks!