May 2005

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Joseph Company Journal. I'm excited to have this forum to share with you. My hope is that you will be encouraged and equipped each month by relevant, practical teachings, testimonies of modern day Josephs wrestling it out in the marketplace. That you will be envisioned with prophetic perspectives on what God is saying to the Josephs today.
Lately, I have been drawn again to the importance of prayer in my life - that place of intimacy where I get God's perspective - the 'new view' if you like that is so vital. So this first newsletter is about first things first - prayer - we Josephs cannot go anywhere without it.

Bob Fraser, Director of the Joseph Company

In This Issue

Teaching
Priests in the Marketplace / Bob Fraser
Prophecy
"Ask Again" / Bob Hartley
Kingdom Profile
A Real Estate Church? / Rustin Carlson
News & Testimonials
NEW! Marketplace Intercession at IHOP!

Teaching

Priests in the Marketplace / Bob Fraser
When ministers whisper behind closed doors that the marketplace is a dangerous place to send Christians, it's easy to get defensive. But the truth is they are mostly right. Too often, Marketplace Christians let their spirituality fall by the wayside. We have not tended well the gardens of our hearts. We have let our passion for God wane. Our spiritual pursuit often dwindles to minimal, perfunctory acts . just enough to keep our heads above water. Our only spiritual intensity comes when we need to be rescued from some desperate life situation. In many cases we have disengaged from church, become cynical and developed an independent spirit. Most tragically, many of us have become prayerless. Prayerlessness is the final fruit of our unspirituality.

Historically and biblically, the majority of great spiritual leaders came from the marketplace. They were ranchers, soldiers, shepherds and workers - normal people, yet deeply spiritual. Yet few marketplace Christians today even try to walk in the footsteps of Nehemiah, David, Joseph or Abraham. Why have we abdicated spiritual greatness? How has the enemy convinced us to set our aim so low?

God has no secular, unspiritual roles in His Kingdom:
9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Pet. 2:9 (NIV)

Every believer is to be first a priest, even a king-priest, meaning one with a kingly flavor. It is not enough to build careers or businesses and give money to the kingdom. It is not even enough to build anointed businesses. We have reduced spirituality to integrity at work, church attendance and giving in church offerings. While these are good, they fall far short of true spirituality. We must become priests of our own lives and our marketplace flock if Marketplace Christianity will have the transforming power God intends it to have.
How then to we reclaim our priesthood in the marketplace?
Prayerlessness

Spiritual greatness comes to those who simply pursue God earnestly; and pursuit of God begins and ends in prayer. Prayer is the single key to reclaiming our marketplace priesthood. But Marketplace Christians are not usually praying people. We give money, go to fellowship groups and prayer breakfasts - but we won't pray. Why? Some of us are discouraged by our weakness. Our past efforts at prayer have only left us disappointed. As spiritual second-class citizens, it has become easier to just not try. But weakness is not to be despised but embraced. God is not impressed by the strength of man, nor depressed by the weakness of man. He loves our earnest pursuit. In our hearts we must only earnestly desire Him to please Him. We must simply be consistent in our weak pursuit in order to become spiritual men and women.
David was a weak and inwardly torn man. He knew he was one step away from sin. He committed a grievous murder in order to commit grievous adultery. Yet David did not allow his weakness to destroy his relationship with God. He did not hide from God, but ran right to Him in repentance (Ps. 51). Astonishingly, God was pleased with him and called him a "man after God's own heart," because he understood the heart of God - that God was for him, even in his weakness and sin. God can deal with our sin, but not with the pretense we often put up, like Ananias and Saphira in Acts 5.
God wants to take us out of that place of sin, spiritual sickness and pretense and into our full marketplace calling, which includes vibrant, passionate spirituality and an active, on-going prayer dialogue with God.
Self-reliance

Another block to prayer is the sickness of self-reliance. Marketplace Christians generally think of themselves as problem-solvers. They hate excuses, hate being needy. As such, prayer offends them. There is an inherent weakness and absurdity to it . and that by God's design. Prayer requires humility and recognition of weakness. It's the only way prayer works.
Like me, most Marketplace Christians want someone else to do the praying. But prayer is every believer's calling. Humans were created, by design, to ask and receive, which is what prayer is. When we ask of God, we are inviting Him to invade earth. Though God owns the earth, He does not take His authority to traffic here unless we invite Him to.
When we neglect prayer, we dis-invite God out of our circumstance and workplace. You may recall the tragic episode of August 2000 when the Soviet Submarine "Kursk" sank to the ocean bottom. Several nations stood by with rescue equipment, ready to try to save the trapped sailors. They only needed Russia's approval. They waited for over a week, until the sailors were all dead, because the Russian leaders were stuck in self-reliance.
God has answers waiting for us, like the ships waiting to help the Kursk. He wants us to ask, so that He can answer.

(To be continued next month. Edited excerpt from "Marketplace Christianity" by Bob Fraser.)

Prophecy

"Ask Again" / Bob Hartley
I had a dream in early 2005 where I was crying out Isaiah 42 v 3 for the Josephs, I saw that in their current state they were weak and beaten up due to a lack of perceived help. Isaiah 42 v 3: "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice."
The current position of the Josephs - the plaintive cry.

I saw that they had a "plaintive" cry to God, mournful and pitiable. The Lord responded to this plaintive cry, He said, "help is on its way" but then he said the real issue is "Why don't the Josephs trust me? Aren't I a friend? Don't friends trust friends? I am not the incompetent God, I have been there for them and they have not perceived me. The modern day Josephs have strange memories, they always remember the rejection rather than my leading love. They need a new view, rather than viewing everything through the filter of rejection. All they have to do is ask me again, from a place of trust. Just keep asking again."
"Many have asked once, twice, even three times, but quickly come to the end of their own strength in asking when they don't really trust me. Ask again with a different attitude - the Mahalalel attitude."
Getting a new view

A few years back when I was sick in bed, reading scripture, God led me to the Noahic genealogy in Genesis 5, and I saw the ways of God with his people unfold in the names from one generation to the next.
This name in the dream - "Mahalalel," from the Noahic genealogy, means "but the blessed God," or "the praise of God." This name reflected the attitude that knows that God has the trump card in any situation - though it may seem like the enemy has laid down four aces, but God wants us to understand and believe that God can change everything in an instant - he has the power to trump every circumstance and every situation.
Ask again

In the dream the scene moved to 1 Kings 18 v 33-35. Elijah is outnumbered 800 to one. The land is ruled by evil. Circumstances look bleak. But Elijah is unmoved, and in the test of fire against the prophets of Baal, actually pours more water on the altar. Although for a season our circumstances may appear to grow worse, (like more water being poured on the offering). It's really an opportunity to obtain a new view of "the God who is able," where harder circumstances are simply an opportunity for a greater victory and greater glory to God.
God is allowing the present circumstances to get the Josephs to ask again, and in the asking again for His view, we gain an expanded vision of God.
In contrast, today's Josephs respond to difficult circumstances by seeing it as rejection. It's all about perspective - asking for this new view, God's altogether different view, that circumstances might be tough, "but the blessed God" has all the trump cards!
I believe this is God's challenge and exhortation to today's Josephs - in the dream he asked "when are you going to get the best view in town - when are you going to see things the way I see things?"

The confident proclamation

The story of Habbakuk is like a prayer journal of the transition from the plaintive cry to the confident proclamation of His promises. The current Joseph cry is like Habbakuk 1 v 1: "How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you 'Violence!' but you do not save?"

But God wants us to have the Mahalalel attitude of confidence in God, as found in Habbakuk 3 v 17 - 19: "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights."

This is the current invitation for the Josephs, to move to the new view like Habbakuk. This new view will cause us to ask and ask again. It is even OK if we start with the plaintive cry so long as we begin asking again, and we ask knowing that God has a trump card, and that he can be trusted.

Habbakuk 1 v 5: "Look at the nations and watch - and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told."
I believe the promise from the Lord to the modern day Joseph's is that we're one step away from entering into a place where we see life from a whole different perspective.

Kingdom Profile

A Real Estate Church? / Rustin Carlson
Rustin Carlson is surprised to find himself back in vocational ministry -the vocation now being CEO of his own successful real estate company, Encore Residential. Instead of youth ministry, his "flock" Is his clients and staff.

It is through business, a business that slightly to his surprise, Rustin loves and thrives in, that he is seeing God move profoundly. Changing lives beyond the walls of traditional church. "I always knew there was a call on my life - I just didn't know that there were other options besides vocational ministry."

This "re-location" is reviving Rustin's heart with the reality that we all can encounter God everywhere and change our cities and that the 97% of Christians not called to vocational ministry need to be empowered to take God's presence into the marketplace: "let's get on our knees and cry out for the presence of God to come out from the temple and onto the streets, onto the highways and byways - we have to have his presence go with us."
Up until seven years ago, Rustin and his wife Laura were in full time "traditional" ministry - running Rock the Nations, a youth program focused primarily on bringing students into the presence of God: "the most predominant thing about that ministry was the consistent presence of God - in ways that I don't think any of us have touched or seen since that time."
Youth ministry had been Rustin's life since getting saved in 1967. Yet the years pioneering ministry on a shoestring took their toll and nearing burn-out in 1998 Rustin handed Rock the Nations over to his VP and went on sabbatical with his family.

The move into the marketplace in 2000 came without writing in the sky or a big vision - it was a pragmatic move, from a rather disillusioned heart, simply to put food on the table for his family.
This pragmatic move however has proven life changing for more people than Rustin alone.
In the context of his growing Real Estate business, Rustin started to come across single moms in desperate shape - left by husbands who'd often wrecked their credit, leaving them trapped in bad neighborhoods with no equity. As Rustin started looking for homes for them, God would give him amazing property deals in good neighborhoods, with safe homes and great schools, where these moms could actually make $10,000 - $15,000/yr on the value of their homes. Working with other businessmen, Rustin was able to cover the down payments, get them qualified for loans, and able to rebuild their lives. Thus the Safe Harbor Initiative was born.
There may only be officially 750 orphans in Colorado Springs, but there are thousands of single parent families - modern day "widow's and orphans" that God has opened up a practical way for Rustin and other businesses to serve.

Other client encounters - like the young couple who'd connected with Rustin when buying their first home, knowing he knew God, called him in when their marriage hit a very rocky patch. He was able to meet with them, help them into counseling, help them identify all the good in their marriage worth fighting for - and today their marriage is restored. Things got worse before they got better, but their lives were changed - through their realtor. What is awesome to Rustin is that: "I could never touch people like this in vocational ministry."

Living by his values has poured out unexpected favor on his business and impacted the city. "From the start of my business I would sit down with clients and say 'Look - I like you, but I like God more than you, I like my family more than you and I absolutely want to take care of you well - you'll have me 7am to 6pm but outside of that you won't. '" Out of 400 clients only one walked away. "The marketplace is watching to see if we really live the life we talk about - they are dying for leaders who'll stand up and be counted, call a spade a spade." This year his company is expecting to do around $28 million in volume, and Rustin was recently named one of America's Top Ten Emerging Christian CEO's.

Prayer and Presence is the life-blood of Encore Residential - the office meets three mornings per week to pray together, interceding for the presence of God to go with them - into meetings, into Starbucks, into homes. Asking God what is on his heart, then partnering with Him in prayer, expecting Him to answer.

Alongside prayer, the core values of the business - service, excellence, camaraderie, family first, equipping the next generation and looking after the widow and orphan provide an environment for God's presence to come. Encore Residential are seeing this happen again and again - it's just that their customer database is really their church - their flock to pastor both in crisis and celebration.

Celebration often looks like the house warming parties Rustin throws for some of his clients. They go the whole hog - beautiful invitations to 25 couples, friends and family of the client, great food - and the first half of the party is spent eating and getting to know each other, before pulling everyone together to pray over the couple, the family and the home - an opportunity to pray with people in a non-religious setting, without religious jargon. These parties obviously aren't without commercial benefits in terms of connecting with potential new clients, but they also give an opportunity to have a voice with people who don't yet know the Lord.
Developing the next generation is another dimension of Rustin's calling that has found fuller, more effective expression in the marketplace.

Many churches run good, solid youth discipleship and mentoring programs, yet in these programs perhaps as few as 5% are really called into vocational ministry - the other 95% need discipleship within businesses - there's a huge mentoring gap. In a smaller business like Encore Residential (with 5 other brokers, plus administrative staff) they have been able to input into a young man who's father died nine years ago. "We're putting him through college, bringing him into the office on a daily basis to mentor him, to train him in business, to teach him all the things he may not know because his dad died early - like how to budget, how to invest, how to get a hold of God on his own."

The presence of God has marked Rustin Carlson, and although he's seeing God move in and through Encore Residential, he is hungry for more - hungry for the presence of God to impact his city and beyond, hungry to rally many to pray for God's presence in the highways and the byways.

News & Testimonials

NEW! Marketplace Intercession at IHOP!
If you live in Kansas City come and join us at IHOP on Wednesday mornings 6-8am for Marketplace focused intercession and personal ministry.
JoCo Spring Breakout Young Adult Summit
Future hope for the future generation was released at the three day Spring Break JoCo summit.
This was the first event geared specifically towards envisioning and equipping college students and young professionals with the message that God is the God of all of life. 120 young adults came from all over America for what was a powerful, paradigm shifting three days. Many young adults found language for their longings that they could be passionate for Jesus outside of "traditional ministry."

Femi Dawodu, 26, a mechanical engineering graduate and regional rep for Caterpillar, from Toronto, Canada found fresh hope in Bob Hartley's teaching on "The God of all of life" and his testimonies of experiencing God outside the walls of church. Since the event, he has experienced a "night and day" difference in the workplace by bringing his daily challenges before God in prayer, now knowing that these everyday interactions and decisions matter deeply to God. "You can experience God in all of life and now I'm not limiting Him to the four walls of the church or my house or the four walls of the Christian community."

April Leadership Retreat

A refreshing and destiny-restoring week was had by the 30 attendees at the recent leadership retreat.

There was a distinct international flavor with Australia, New Zealand, England, Canada, the Ukraine, and Ecuador represented. Yet the national diversity only magnified the encouragement of the heart connections, and confirmation that God is raising the Josephs all around the world - people hungry for the reality of God in the marketplace and in all of life. "This week has bought me encouragement, vision and a sense that there are many more like me in many places," said Bernie Marshall of Ontario, Canada.

The six day retreat, held on the peaceful grounds of the Shiloh Retreat center, featured in-depth teaching on the Joseph Company paradigm, and personal prophetic ministry, time to rest and listen in the presence of God.