Daniel and his wife Jamie and son Liam
[This post is part of the “Non Conventional Places A.P.E. Giftings Show Up” series. Read the rest of the posts here!]
This is a guest post by Daniel Hawthorn. He lives in the San Francisco bay area with his wife Jamie and son Liam. He works as a software engineer and is the founder of eduschedu.com, a small education technology company serving students and teachers in K-12 schools. He carries a strong vision for incarnating Christ in business by releasing believers to express the fulness of Kingdom life and creativity in the workplace. He thoroughly enjoys any conversation that involves the cross section of education, technology, and the Kingdom, and in the early evenings can usually be found on a run with his toddler and trusty jogging stroller.
I am a teacher-slash-software engineer-slash-entrepreneur with an apostolic call to the marketplace. An ‘A’ with regards to the A.P.E. acronym and called to the marketplace.
Yeah, it’s a mouthful, and it can be tough to explain what this means to people. I feel like the Church has traditionally had a very limited understanding of what it means to bring the Kingdom to business and the marketplace, and so many of us have no grid for what it means to be an apostolic entrepreneur. Let me put it this way: bringing the order of the Kingdom into the marketplace through business means a whole lot more than reading your Bible during lunch and telling your coworkers you are a Christian! That may be a tough one to wrap your head around, and it’s been a journey for me as well.
I have spent many years in churches feeling deeply misunderstood. I could almost describe it as constrained. I am only beginning to understand what it means to carry an apostolic call, but as I begin to step into this role it is the most exciting, terrifying, thrilling, and alive way I could imagine to live my life.
A Frustrated Leader
Let me take you back. For years, I have carried a deep burden to see and experience what I read in the Bible in my day-to-day life. But I also found myself frustrated. I often said, “Lord, there must be more!” I loved (and still love!) the churches I attended. But as I joined various ministries or participated in leadership teams, I always felt like a piece of me just didn’t fit. I wanted to see Christ impact every aspect of my life and the lives of people around me – the people who I would never see next to me in the pews on Sundays.
Looking back, I understand this was the apostolic call tapping me on the shoulder.
Paul said in Romans 15:20 that his desire was to preach Christ where no foundation had yet been laid. The apostolic call desires to establish the order of the Kingdom in domains, regions, and organizations where it has never before been. An apostolic leader is needed where no order and Kingdom DNA has been established. To put it another way, an apostolic leader goes where there is no expression of Christ in order to engineer, implant, and impart the Kingdom. Ultimately, a new community of believers (the Church!) will be established in that place to catalyze further transformation, so that the apostolic leader can move on to repeat the process in new places and communities.
An Apostolic Math Teacher
I spent 5 years as a high school math teacher. Teaching was a great job! As an APE, teaching was one of the most rewarding, fulfilling jobs I could have imagined. The classroom was a domain where I had freedom to establish the order of the Kingdom. In the classroom I had the opportunity to bring truth to my students in ways that, I hope, will in a small way change their lives forever. Every day I got to spend time with kids with no fathers, with kids who believed they were stupid, with kids who desperately needed someone to tell them they have value, show them they have value, by loving them as the Father loves me.
Let me be clear: as a teacher, it was not appropriate for me to directly evangelize, proselytize, convert, or do anything of the sort. And for good reason! When we are given a position of authority over other people, such as in a classroom or in the workplace, we are entrusted with power to influence. To use this influence to manipulate those under us, no matter how unintentionally, is offensive and dishonoring.
Because I carried an apostolic vision with me into my classroom, I was able to deliberately construct an atmosphere in my classroom that brought life to the students under my charge. I was intentional about not hiding my faith – my students knew me as a Christian. My goal was to demonstrate the person of Christ in my words, my actions, and in the environment that I created within my classroom. The normal setbacks of life and academics encountered by the teenagers in my classes became opportunities for me to encourage and lead them into promise and life.
An Apostolic Engineer
I loved, and still love, teaching, but when I quit my teaching job in 2010 the real adventure began. My background in software engineering, a bent towards entrepreneurship, and a developing understanding of the power of business to bring positive change to communities lead me to make a radical change. The same week my wife gave birth to our first son (an adventure in itself!), I quit my teaching job and (between helping care for my wife and our newborn) founded an educational software startup dedicated to serving teachers and students in K-12 schools. Crazy? Perhaps. Worth it? Definitely.
What we need to understand is that living out an A.P.E. gifting (especially the ‘A’!) can mean founding a software startup or working a cash register as much as it can mean full time ‘ministry’. Don’t get stuck thinking that to be an APE means sending out support letters or working on a church staff. I’m not minimizing these things, I am only saying that many believers with an APE gifting will never join professional ministry.
The apostolic calling is about bringing the Kingdom to communities. It’s about establishing structures that lead people into encounter with Christ. It’s about taking the broken things on the Earth and working to see them rebuilt to align with God’s intent.
If Jesus is Christ, and the perfect representation of the creator of perfect order and beauty, then he is the most attractive man that ever lived. I’ve discovered that one of the jobs of an apostolic APE is to see His image formed in every earthly structure, and to labor to build systems that bring glory to God. Many of us spend 40 or more hours a week in our jobs, but so few of us have ever been released to view their vocation as a first-class heavenly assignment. Business can shape culture, and has power to bring Kingdom order to communities when it submitted to the leadership of Christ. Even believers in the most menial of roles are positioned to impact those within their sphere of influence. Ask the Lord for insight!
Do you have an apostolic call on your life? Do you love the marketplace? There is no division between the spiritual and natural. Like me, the Lord is calling many of you to the marketplace. What are you waiting for?
[This post is part of the “Non Conventional Places A.P.E. Giftings Show Up” series. Read the rest of the posts here!]
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Hey Daniel, thanks for articulating something I’ve struggled with for a long time. As the son of a seminary professor, I’ve felt some level of guilt about not being in Ministry or another Worthwhile Profession. But you captured here what I think I’ve been attempting to achieve in the very secular field of advertising: “an apostolic leader goes where there is no expression of Christ in order to engineer, implant, and impart the Kingdom.” Cheers!
Great post! This has been my big quest for the past year… what does it look like to be a missionary in a secular position? I think this will help open up eyes in seeing that the distinction between secular work and ministry is (or at least should be) imaginary. Thanks for sharing!
Glad the post struck a chord with you guys. @Nate I think there are tons of people out there who are experiencing something similar: a feeling that by being in the marketplace full time instead of ‘ministry’ they are somehow selling out. The reality couldn’t be further than the truth! In fact I am inclined to think that (at least among the more post-Christian demographics) the only exposure to authentic Christianity many people will get is through a believing, missional coworker. I think it’s high time we began to impart a vision and affirm this calling, so it’s good to hear this resonates.
Daniel, I have a question: I am from Germany. And I really think I heard that call you are talking about. And I really experienced that God prepared that way. But I don’t know how to work as a christian in a company. You are a leader and I think that is a good position to be an example and you can decide how you want to and what you want to, but as a “normal” emplyee how can I live my christianity at my workplace? That is a question I have now for some years. And I never got an answer. I met many people working for a company in that business world but my impression is that they have two lifes: One as a christian on sunday and in the evenings with their families and one during the days at work as a “normal” person. I am a student and I really want to prepare my start of working for a company as a christian. During my internships I also realized that it is really hard to talk about christianity with my colleagues and also it is really hard to make a difference. It also is really hard to stay in contact with God when you are really busy. Do someone has any advice? Thank you!
Maike, that is a great question! I will do my best to provide a few “points to ponder” as you explore this.
The only difference between being a ‘normal’ employee and a leader is what I would call the size of your ‘sphere of influence’. A leader in a business will impact a large number of people with their decisions, while someone lower on the org chart may only impact a few. But living as a Kingdom worker looks exactly the same in both positions! Remember, the Lord judges hearts.
I think living as a marketplace Christian can be broken down into four main expressions of the Kingdom: Love, Prayer, Serving in Humility, and Excellence.
Two of the best biblical examples are this is the story of Joseph that begins in Genesis 37, and Daniel (in the book of his own name). If you read through each of these stories, you will clearly see these four expressions at work in the lives of each of these men.
So let me break them down.
(1) Love. To be a light in the marketplace, we need to have Love, and the source of Love is Christ. Selfless, Christ-like love is a rare thing in the marketplace.
To have Love, though, we need to be well connected and sustained by the source of Love – Christ himself.
(2) Prayer. To be well connected and sustained by Love, we need to spend time with Him. A radical commitment to spending time in prayer is what will sustain you over the long haul to live out the Kingdom in the marketplace against tremendous pressure to do otherwise!
Yes, it is hard to stay in contact with God when you are really busy. It will require discipline and commitment to make regular time in your schedule to spend time seeking the Lord and fellowship with other believers.
(3) Serving in Humility. Being filled with Love through a commitment to intimacy with Christ through prayer is what will then allow us to live out Kingdom leadership.
Leadership?
Yes, take a look; Jesus outlined this in Matthew 20:25-28: “…whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Working in the marketplace to genuinely serve others, without placing our own agenda (religious or otherwise!) in front, is the model Christ set for us. When a person lives this out, others take notice. It will have a major impact in your workplace – but we live this out to the fullest when we are walking in Love through Prayer.
(4) Excellence. The marketplace places a high value on excellence. Proverbs 22:29 says “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.”
Whatever your role at work, do it with excellence. “Do it right” – go over and above to meet the needs of the people you serve at work. God is the author of beauty, and the source of Excellence. Being consistently connected to Him through prayer allows our mind and emotions to be molded to conform to those of the Creator!
Ok – now, to summarize.
The way I understand a calling to the marketplace as a believer is to think of it using these four dynamics: externally serving others in humility with excellence, by internally embodying Love through a commitment to prayer.
Living this out in the workplace WILL have an impact. Over time, you will change the ‘atmosphere’ and environment around you at work as you incarnate the Kingdom. And, over time, you will likely find that your influence will increase. This may mean being promoted to Chief Prisoner (Joseph), or it may mean becoming the second-in-command to a King (Daniel). Either way, God is behind it.
Psyched you are on this journey Maike. Keep pressing on!
Thank you very much, Daniel! That was really helpful! I have a follow up question. I hope, that is okay. You do not have to answer if you don’t want to :). How do you implement the prayer point in your life? I never met a person where this point gets to reality, well, what I mean is, that noone seems to be able to realize it in life.
Yeah, the prayer point is critical, and unfortunately, also an area where finding role models can be difficult!
I think the most important point about making prayer a central part of your life is to grow to a point where it becomes more than just a discipline or exercise, and actually something that is enjoyable and filling. Without enjoying prayer, it will be very difficult to sustain it over the long haul!
I think I could out it best this way: prayer becomes something you enjoy when Jesus becomes some*one* you enjoy. One way to look at prayer is as a two-way conversation with the Lord. As we spend time with the Lord and begin to become familiar with His emotions, attitudes and desires, we begin to experience life and vibrancy in our own. Intimacy with the Lord is deeply pleasurable, like an intimate friendship with another person, but more so.
Ok, so how do you get there? I would say there are two things: time, and focus.
To an extent, it does start with discipline. Set aside time each day for this. Start small, but don’t stop there. 10 minutes a day is a good start if you are starting from zero! I think 40 minutes each day is the bare minimum. For me, and the way I’m wired, it takes at least that long before I can begin ‘dialing down’ all my thoughts and distractions to the point that my heart can really become engaged.
Focus is the other key ingredient. Time is not helpful if it’s not focused correctly. The scriptures are fantastic for this! Read scripture in prayer, but don’t just read it. Engage with the written word by praying it back to the Lord. For example, for me, praying Psalm 1:1 would look something like this:
“Thank you Father that you bless me when I keep away for wicked advise. Please help me to run from partnership with evil, and from having a heart that mocks your goodness.”
As I keep reading and praying, over some time, my heart begins to become engaged with the Word and I begin to encounter the Lord in communion and experience greater fellowship with His Spirit. If I stay focused and don’t allow distraction to come in, I begin to transition into a place of great freedom in prayer, where instead of just reading the scripture, I begin talking to the Lord about my fears, desires, and requests for people and the world around me. This is the place of the greatest enjoyment for me.
It takes effort and discipline to make prayer a meaningful and central part of your life, but over the years I have come to a place where I depend on it. I couldn’t do without it now!
It’s definitely a journey, and growing deeper in prayer is something that takes years and years, not weeks or months. So be patient, and keep at it. Spend the time with the Lord and the reward will come. Keep at it Maike!