A Businessman’s Brave & Tough Decision

I love meeting weekly with the elders of our church.  We pray together, dream together and lead together. At the beginning of each year we take some time to share with each other the things that God taught us in the previous year.

This week I was inspired by a story that one of the guys shared. A year ago Fred had a job in management at the large insurance company he works for.  He is a great leader (West Point grad) and his family is an awesome influence in our church.  They have a remarkable story about how God saved them and their marriage 15 years ago.  God is good!

But Fred felt like his management job kept him on the road too much.  He was missing opportunities to really impact his family, neighbors, co-workers and the Life Group that he leads.

24  months ago he made the tough decision to turn in his management hat and return to a sales position in the company. That meant a loss of some prestige and income.  He wasn’t saying “Work is pointless and I need to put my job on cruise control while I do real ministry elsewhere.”  Instead Fred’s choice actually made life more difficult at work because he had to generate sales and live off that commission.

It’s refreshing to hear such a real story of a decision that is counter-cultural.  It was an intentional decision to trade in his management position in order to pursue a deeper relationships with the people God put in Fred’s life. As he shared this with our elder team, he pointed that just because it was the “right” decision to make doesn’t mean it’s been easy.

Fred is a trader.

I believe there are a lot of “Freds” in church today who need permission to think about their work, their family and their neighborhood in a counter-cultural way.

Culture says look out for yourself.  Jesus says the first will be last and the last will be first.