This week's episode, How and Why I Went From Seminary into Business. Welcome back to Theology of Business. I'm your host, Darren Shear, author of the book Marketing Like Jesus, and this is the show that helps marketplace leaders to partner with God in business to make a greater impact in society and in eternity. If you want to learn more about how to do business for the glory of God, this show is for you. This is a podcast by Christian business leaders for Christian business leaders. Before I get into this week's episode, I want to let you know that I have some speaking dates open. So if you're interested in having me come and speak to your church or at your conference about living out your faith and using your spiritual gifts in the marketplace, feel free to email me at Darren at highbridgebooks.com or through the theologyofbusiness.com website. I'd love to talk about possibly coming to speak to your group. When I once shared with a businessman that I was in seminary studying theology in preparation for going into business, without hesitation he responded, Does that mean you're planning to become a televangelist? My classmates in seminary were equally as baffled as to how theological training is relevant to the marketplace. There's just that disconnect between the business world and the church world. They just couldn't understand it. So on this episode, I want to share with you how and why I went from seminary into business school and into owning my own company. And it might surprise you that this career path has actually been mostly deliberate rather than accidental. As a son of a pastor and a music minister, I grew up in church in Columbia, South Carolina, thinking that ministry was something that happened inside the four walls of a church building. And then following the attacks on the World Trade Center on September the 11th, 2001, I joined the Air Force as an officer to serve my country. Actually, on September the 11th, I saw what had happened on the TVs, how the towers had been struck, how the United States had been attacked, and I went down to the Commandant of Cadets office at the ROTC department at Charleston Southern University and Charleston, South Carolina, and said, Sir, I want to serve my country and ended up coming in as an officer just a short time later. But however, I didn't view the Air Force as a context in which to serve God. It was really just patriotism and a place for me to serve my country. To be sure I was doing ministry work while I served in the Air Force, I served in as many different church ministry positions as time permitted. So when I was off work from the Air Force, when I left the Air Force base, that was when ministry time began. I would go and I served as a part-time youth pastor in a local church. I led teams of young adults on evangelistic street outreaches in downtown Shreveport, Louisiana, where I was stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, if you're familiar with that. I led worship music for a church service at a Spanish-speaking church. And I served even as a parking lot attendant at my church on Sunday morning. I just wanted to be involved. I wanted to be doing ministry, and for me that meant inside of a church. So I did everything I could to reassure myself that I was doing stuff for God, that I was doing legitimate forms of ministry because that was how I had been taught inside the church. But then the limits came off. As I was leaving Barksdale Air Force Base after work one day, I was heading to serve at my local church as my custom was, and then in that moment, God spoke to me. As I was leaving the base, he said, Your ministry is on this Air Force base. So in that moment, as I was exiting through the gate of my workplace, God took the limits off of my definition of ministry. It was from that point on that I began to witness God revealing himself to my brothers and sisters in arms in our workplace, to my fellow airmen, my fellow officers, the enlisted folks also that were working with me in the Air Force. I began to see God revealing himself to these people. They started asking questions about the Christian faith in the workplace. They were getting saved. They were growing as disciples of Jesus in the workplace. And it was during that season that I began to realize that the workplace is where disciples are made. Why is that? It's because that's where we spend our time, most of us. We might spend two hours or three hours a week. If you're like me, you probably spent uh quite a bit more hours at your local church doing different outreaches and things like that. But that's in the marketplace, that's where you spend most of your time, and that's where lifestyles are modeled, and that's where those Christian lifestyles, those Christ-like examples are observed by lost people. And not just by lost people, but by Christians that need to see a real life example. You know, we get to see our pastor up on the pulpit, but we don't necessarily get to spend our week with these Christian leaders that we hear from on Sunday. But those Christians that you're with in the marketplace, that's where discipleship happens. Now I want to share with you the most important thing that I learned in seminary. It was following the Air Force, that was when God opened the door for me to attend seminary for theological training at Regent University, which is in Virginia Beach, Virginia. But unlike about 99% of my classmates, I didn't come into seminary with the goal of becoming a licensed minister or becoming a seminary professor or a pastor or the leader of a faith-based nonprofit. Because I viewed seminary as a launch pad for ministry in the marketplace. So I approached seminary with the understanding that my ministry would not be in a local church or in a quote unquote Christian institution, but it would be primarily in the marketplace, not in a religious institution. Although about 85% of most pastors' congregations work in for-profit companies, unfortunately, there weren't any classes about the theology of business in my seminary. There weren't any classes about how to help the members of your congregation to use their spiritual gifts in the workplace. And after all, I mean you can't really blame the pastors because pastors usually don't have backgrounds in business. So how could they understand the daily experience of a business professional well enough to disciple him or her effectively in a marketplace context where they don't spend their time? Although I was able to focus my research papers and seminary on topics related to Christianity in the marketplace, I had hoped that my seminary courses would have provided a bit more curriculum that would have helped me to understand God's plan, God's plan of redemption is redeeming plan for the marketplace. And although my seminary experience ultimately fell short in this respect, I did have an incredibly enriching learning experience as I gained a broader understanding of who God is and what he's done through the centuries. I mean, my systematic theology classes and church history classes were incredibly valuable. I wouldn't trade them for anything, but I believe that my primary purpose for attending seminary was to make one important discovery. And that was this. Through a course titled Biblical Models of Discipleship, God revealed to me that my primary responsibility as a Christian is to make disciples of Jesus. That's the Great Commission. That's what Jesus talked about when he said, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. It's not necessarily about getting people inside churches. It's not necessarily about making money for noble purposes. Yes, those things are certainly part of it, but ultimately, when it comes down to it, it's all about making disciples. It's about showing people what Jesus looks like. It's about knowing him and making him known through every aspect of our lives. So not only did God call me to work in the marketplace, he also called me to start a business. Not just to work for somebody, but to be my own boss. And as I learned in seminary, the entire purpose for these businesses that I would start would be to make disciples of Jesus. When I was working for other employers, I was limited in the way that I could express my spiritual gifts and my calling because I had to do what my boss wanted me to do. But entrepreneurship, on the other hand, has it's given me the freedom to do exactly what God has called me to do. I don't have to wonder if I have a boss's permission. And not only what he's called me to do, but the way that he's gifted me to do it. So following seminary, I went to business school at Pace University in New York, New York, where I became immersed in today's entrepreneurship culture. And at first I thought that the only respectable types of businesses you could start were tech companies that required millions in venture capital funding, like Facebook and Twitter and Google and all these big uh startups that ultimately grew into these massive publicly traded companies. So for this reason, most of my efforts to start my company were focused more on pleasing investors than on pleasing God by doing what he had called me and gifted me to do. That was kind of how I was wired in business school. It's like if you're not uh if you're if your company isn't isn't one of those hot industries, or if you're not coming out with this disruptive technology, or it's not something that a venture capitalist or a VC would want to invest millions of dollars into, then it's it's not a legit company. And that's unfortunately kind of the way that I had been conditioned in business school. I had been trying to start a business that was focused more on what seemed to be popular and profitable and disruptive than on how God had gifted me to start a business. So during that season in business school, I started to take a hard look at who God had created me to be. And to figure out which business God wanted me to start first, I started to ask some soul searching questions like, what type of work gets me excited? And what type of work am I good at? And as I look back over my life, what type of work has God been preparing me to do? And my responses to these questions eventually led me to start a publishing company. I had been in uh I'd been an English major in college, I taught academic writing to graduate students, I had edited numerous doctoral dissertations and had even written and published my own book while I was in seminary. And in addition, I had enjoyed marketing and I'd served as the marketing director for a nonprofit. Starting a publishing company, it enabled me to launch a company immediately. So I didn't have to wait for investors or lenders. I got married in 2012. So those of you that are that are married or that are about to get married, you know that uh as a provider, you you can't goof around. You can't, I couldn't sit around waiting for investors anymore. I had to make something happen immediately. And so my company, it was it was a very attractive industry to get into because this particular company that I started, it cost very little to get started, and I was able to build it while working a full-time job in marketing. I started the company in 2013, so not too long ago, with just a hundred dollar investment. And right now it's already provided enough income for me to work from home and also to allow my wife to be a full-time mom for our baby son, and I get to uh work in the home and get to be with them and take breaks and go and roll around with my son and just hang out with the family in the middle of the day, or you know, we get to go out and have lunch as a family during the the quote unquote workday. And so it's just been an incredible experience. And the name of my publishing company, you're probably familiar if you've been listening to this podcast, it's High Bridge Books, which was inspired by the Highbridge, which it was a bridge that connected my former neighborhood. I used to live in Upper Manhattan, Washington Heights, to be exact, if you're familiar with that area. And and uh if if you're not familiar, it's a this zip code, Washington Heights, uh, is 75% Dominican. So uh if you've seen my picture, I'm a red-headed white guy, and so living right in the middle of uh this Dominican neighborhood, I certainly stood out, but it was an incredible experience. Washington Heights, I think it's considered one of the loudest neighborhoods. Dominicans, they sure know, they sure know how to party, but the high bridge, it connected my former neighborhood of Washington Heights in Manhattan to the Bronx. And the high bridge is still the oldest bridge in New York City. It's older than the than the Brooklyn Bridge, it's older than all the rest. It was built in 1848 as an aqueduct to provide water to the citizens of Manhattan. And likewise, as the high bridge provided life-sustaining water to the masses, high bridge books, this is my vision for it, is that it it helps authors to provide life-changing books to the world. So through more than the 20 books that our authors have published since 2013, we've helped to make disciples literally of thousands of people. Now, with that said, you don't have to create quote unquote Christian products to make disciples through your business. I realized that the main way I make disciples through my business every day is through how I reflect the character of Jesus through the service that I provide for my clients. I mean, ultimately, it's the day-in, day-out relationship interaction that you have with people that is they're gonna see what you're all about by the day by day, not by one a one-time transaction or just even coming on once a week to interact with you, but it's the day-in, day-out relationship, which is why ministry in the marketplace is so powerful. So you don't have to be making Christian products or have a quote unquote Christian company in order to reflect Christ through your business. It's it's about how you treat people, it's about how you serve people. And this company, High Bridge Books, has also provided the financial means for me to be able to provide this theology of business podcast and blog for Christian business leaders like those of you that are listening right now. My goal with Theology of Business is to help marketplace leaders to partner with God in their businesses to make an impact for Christ in society and in eternity. And one of the greatest joys of my life is to be able to provide and create this podcast for you each week and to have life-changing conversations with the guests that I have on this show. So, how about you? Are you called to make disciples in the marketplace? If you're a Christian, I know for a fact that you're called to make disciples in the marketplace because that's what Jesus called us to do, and the Great Commission is to go into all the world and make disciples. And people, those of us that are in business are certainly not exempt. In fact, we are in the best position to make disciples because we have daily relationship with people that the clergy, quote unquote, our pastors on Sunday, will never have an opportunity to interact with.com. And as a reminder, I have some speaking dates open. So if you're interested in having me come and speak to your church or at your conference about living out your faith and using your spiritual gifts in the marketplace, feel free to email me at Darren at hybridbooks.com or you can contact me for theology of business.com and we'll talk about it. Thanks for listening and keep partnering with God in your business.