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Chapter
1
The Fourth Frontier:
Claiming Your Future
Ferdinand Magellan had every
reason to celebrate when he and his small fleet reached
Cape Virgennes on the southern tip of South America
and found what previously existed in the European world
only as a rumor-a westward water passage into what he
would name the Pacific Ocean.
It was October 21, 1520, more
than a year after Magellan had set sail from Spain with
five ships and a crew of more than 250 men. He had survived
a grueling winter and a mutiny that cost him three officers.
But his fierce determination, his faith in God and in
his mission, and his loyalty to the king of his adopted
country was about to pay off. Soon he would make the
northwestern trek to what were known as the Spice Islands
and establish a profitable new trade route with Asia
on behalf of King Carlos of Spain.
Or so he thought.
Little did Magellan know that the testing of that determination,
faith, and loyalty had just begun. By the time he navigated
the stormy seas of the 373-mile channel, one of his
ships had secretly deserted and returned to Spain.
To this development Magellan
responded with a familiar cry: "Sail on; sail on." It
was an order that his crew would hear again and again;
the size of this newfound ocean had been greatly underestimated.
Fighting fear, fatigue, frustration, and hunger, Magellan
and his men survived three months on the open seas,
feeding on rats, ox hides, and sawdust before reaching
what now is known as Guam.
From there, Magellan discovered the archipelago of San Lazaro (the
Philippines), where he planned to rest his men, repair
his ships, and restock his galleys before moving on
to his original destination.
Magellan's first encounters
with the natives of the Philippines were positive. Eight
days after his arrival, the Catholic captain baptized
an island chief and
several hundred islanders. But in a battle with neighboring islanders,
a poisoned arrow felled Magellan. He died April 27,
1521.
With their captain's words
whispering in the wind, "Sail on; sail on," the crews
of two ships completed the journey to the Spice Islands.
One attempted to return via the Pacific route, but the
Portuguese captured and imprisoned
its men. The other, the Victoria, reached Spain on September
8, 1522, with a crew of eighteen and more than enough
spices to pay the expenses of the three-year voyage.
More important, the voyage changed forever the dynamics of economic
trade in a suddenly round world. Magellan, an outcast
in his native country of Portugal, was, in the words
of Os Guinness, "a dreamer fired by an inner vision
and fortified by devout faith."1 He had recognized an
external opportunity: the chance to explore and discover
an awaiting new world. And he had pursued it with a
fierce inward sense of loyalty and determination on
behalf of King Carlos. He had followed his orders, despite
long odds and difficult times. And he had conquered
an unknown frontier.
A New Frontier for a New
Millennium
A new territory lies at the
rim of the New Economy. This territory has been around
since the beginning of time but in many ways is as uncharted
and foreign to followers of Christ in the twenty-first
century as the South Pacific was to Magellan and his
shipmates during the sixteenth. It's the territory of
work. We call it the Fourth Frontier.
Like Magellan, we aggressively approach this frontier with two primary
motives: the outward observation that it's ripe with
opportunity and the inward realization that we're commanded
to do so by our King.
In addition to the worlds of
family, government, and church, God has created this
Fourth Frontier for us to explore, discover, and cultivate
for his glory. Many followers of Jesus have access to
a great deal of information about three of those institutions-the
church, the government, and the family. We understand
that the church is nothing less than the body of Christ,
directed by God to love him, each other, and the lost.
The need for strong families has received a great deal
of attention in recent years with the rise of such invaluable
ministries as Focus on the Family, Promise Keepers,
and FamilyLife. Clearly, God mandates the investment
of our lives into the lives of our spouses and children.
Christians, too, are active in government, working diligently
for the passage of laws supporting biblical values.
But what about work? What sermons
have we heard lately about the inherent value and beauty
of work? Mysteriously, an aura of silence surrounds
the God-ordained institution of work, often leaving
modern-day explorers disoriented and puzzled.
Such was the case with Barry
Logan (not his real name), who was making $160,000 as
senior vice president at an insurance company. During
Christmas week, he got a call from his boss, who happened
to double as his golf buddy. "Barry, I'm afraid I've
got some bad news. I hate to deliver it during the Christmas
season, but I guess there's never a good time for this
sort of thing."
Barry's chest tightened. "So, shoot. What's up?"
"We've decided to do away with
your position. We can give you thirty days to find a
new job."
"You mean a new job inside-some other area? But why?"
"No." There was a long pause.
"Outside."
Barry let the "why" part of
his question drop. What did it matter? He hung up the
phone and sank onto the sofa. How could he tell Rochelle
and the kids after what they'd just been through? The
decision to move to Atlanta for the new job a year ago
had been tough, but all of them eventually had agreed
that it was the right thing for the family. He'd pulled
Rochelle and his twelve- and sixteen-year-old boys out
of Mississippi, where they'd been surrounded by three
generations of relatives. For what? For this? It didn't
make any sense.
Stunned, Barry sat silently
for a long hour while he replayed the last year of his
life. He racked his brain for clues that this was coming.
The company chiefs in Atlanta had told Barry he had a great opportunity
to make "tons of money." That part had been correct.
The company was making money hand over fist. Barry's
own division was doubling revenues every quarter. So
how could he personally be so expendable? How could
he be booted off the top rung? What base didn't he touch?
He'd built a network, fit in, socialized. And it wasn't
as though he'd just moved into their territory and collected
a contribution; he'd grown the company through the curve.
Performance evaluations from
years past rolled through Barry's mind. Excellent, every
one. Every job. Was it even about him? Big corporations
often laid off employees at year-end to improve the
bottom line and then rehired them three months later.
Didn't they realize the impact these kinds of reversals
had on families?
The biggest confusion: How
could he have been so far off in reading God's direction?
Barry had been sure God had moved them, had given him
the perfect job for his skills and previous experience,
had put him in the perfect place to raise a family.
No, he'd never worked just for a paycheck. He felt as
though he was being salt and light in his marketplace.
So why this? He just wanted to know. The dismissal struck
at the very core of his self-worth.
To this day, Barry is searching for the answers.
Only the Sturdy Need Apply
The Fourth Frontier: It's no journey for the weak-kneed and fainthearted.
As Barry Logan discovered,
it can be an unforgiving terrain. And the traditional
sources for faith-based answers to life's dilemmas often
fail to recognize the existence of the territory, much
less make efforts to provide direction for getting through
it. When mentioned at all, work generally is viewed
as negative, something that keeps us from spending our
time and energy on truly important issues-family and
church. Even our daily conversations color work with
negative brush strokes:
"TGIF-do I ever need a weekend."
"Wednesday is hump day-I'm halfway through."
"Sorry, can't go to the ball game; I've got to work."
"Remember that all work and
no play makes Jack a dull boy."
"Work is just killing me."
"I'm on a treadmill, and I
can't get off."
"There's no meaning to my work;
it's just a paycheck."
At best, many followers of
Christ, uninformed or misinformed about what the Bible
teaches regarding work, simply treat it as a necessity,
something they must do to make a living-a separate,
disconnected activity of existence. Work is from nine
to five on Monday through Friday, and real life-the
good life-happens all the rest of the time.
A case in point: I (Steve) was having breakfast with
a few friends. All three were believers who work in
"secular" professions. Over the omelettes, one told
us about a book he was reading and then said, "A book
like that makes me realize what a lousy job I'm doing
in evangelizing my neighborhood. I just don't share
my faith often enough."
The other two joined in. In
a nutshell, their comments came down to this: "We're
not doing enough that has eternal significance. We're
not making a difference in the world."
"Whoa," I spoke up. "If anybody's
being salt and light in this world, it's you three guys."
As I went on to explain what I'd observed in their lives
through the years, their expressions changed from gloom
to glee. As husbands and fathers, these men were making
an incredible impression on their families. As church
leaders, they were having a deep impact on their community.
And as a physician, a dentist, and a businessman, they
were influencing clients, patients, vendors, staff,
and colleagues on a daily basis. Furthermore, each life
they touched created a ripple effect that was immeasurable.
They were stunned. They'd never considered their jobs
as their platform for ministry, their calling, their
method of influencing the world for God's kingdom.
What happens when we dismiss
work, a significant and critical part of our day, as
less important than the rest of our time? And what if
that less important time just happens to be-by sheer
number of hours-the place we spend most of our waking
time? What does our attitude say about our view of God?
Is he less present at a conference table at Smith, Jones,
Ramseyer & Whitmer than he is at a church Communion
service or at our dinner table?
So Where Are We Going?
The thesis of this book is simple: God has ordained work. It was
his idea. Whether you are a man or a woman, twenty-five
or fifty-five, conservative or liberal, wealthy or poor,
work is a critical part of your life. You spend eighty
thousand to one hundred thousand of your best hours
there. If
you don't see work as God-ordained,
you miss the opportunities to mature and experience
fulfillment that God has placed there. There should
be a seamless connection between Friday and Sunday and
between Sunday and Monday.
By giving work such a high
status with a newfangled name as the Fourth Frontier,
we understand the implications. The old mission, to
survive in a marketplace that has no relevance to the
deeper meaning of life, often is filled with inaccurate
maps and limited vocabulary. It simply will not take
us to the New World, where an integrated life leaves
no areas untouched by faith. In fact, these maps may
make us miss a wealth of possibilities altogether. In
order to explore the Fourth Frontier successfully, we
need to understand our specific mission. And we should
not travel unprepared.
Like Magellan, followers of Christ have a King who has issued a
decree. Our King, the God of the cosmos, has given us
a wealth of information and maps for exploring the Fourth
Frontier; he has outlined our responsibilities in his
Magna Carta-the Scriptures. He has invested gifts in
us for expression and worship that must be exercised
in the work world. His decree is to be salt to an unseasoned,
decaying culture and light to a dark, dangerous world.
But that's not all. Besides
the internal sense of responsibility to our King, we
have an unprecedented external opportunity for delivering
that salt and light. The cultural doors of the postmodern
world are swinging open-in some cases have already swung
open-and it is now up to followers of Christ, individually
and collectively, to come in, explore the terrain, and
establish a kingdom influence in the marketplace.
British essayist Dorothy Sayers explained it this way:
"In nothing has the church so lost her hold on reality
as in her failure to understand and respect the secular
vocation, she has allowed work and religion to become
separate departments. . . . She has forgotten that the
secular vocation is sacred."2
And if the church no longer
sees work as sacred, is it any wonder that so many workers
no longer see their faith as sacred? "How can anyone
remain interested in a religion," asked Sayers, "that
seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of life?"3
A few years ago Doug Sherman
and William Hendricks wrote a groundbreaking book called
Your Work Matters to God. At this stage, it is critical
to understand that the reverse is equally true-God matters
to your work! Accepting and combining those two big
ideas is the first step toward leading an integrated
life in the Fourth Frontier.
The exploration begins here, with this book. As we launch,
consider your own attitudes about work.
· Do you feel passionate about your work? As older workers
retire, they often ask, "Did all the energy and effort
I put into my career really
matter to anyone?" Baby boomers
are moving toward their midlife question, "How do I
want to spend the second half of my career?" Generation
Xers are asking, "Is it important to go to work today?
Will it count? Is this project meaningful?"
· Do you feel pulled in opposite
directions-that work takes you away from family or church?
· Do you ever feel that there
are just not enough hours in the day to accomplish all
God has asked you to do?
· Is your work significant
for God's kingdom?
· Have you been led to believe
that the only ministry that really "counts" is done
inside the church or in a parachurch organization?
· Do you ever feel "compromised"
at work, that you're not really taking a stand and being
biblical salt and light in your marketplace?
· Do you ever feel guilty that you're enjoying prosperity?
If these questions raise more
questions and even doubts, we invite you along for the
journey of self-discovery about your stake in the Fourth
Frontier.
But be warned. This is not
a self-help book. There is no seven-step formula to
a better work life. Our focus will be what we call "realities"-realities
of someone settling in the Fourth Frontier. But the
exploration by each pioneer in the Fourth Frontier will
be unique. We are all at different places in our walk
with Jesus. We possess different skill sets. And we
have different expertise and platforms in the business
world. But that's what exploration entails: a creative
adventure in your own space shuttle, seafaring ship,
or Yukon kayak.
What we hope to provide is
some work-specific vocabulary from God's Word, to outline
some general attitudes and motivations, and to show,
in a broad manner, what the integration of work and
faith might look like: six realities common in those
who do well by God's standards in the Fourth Frontier.
By focusing on the lives of some truly cutting-edge
explorers, we can provide some different models of how
Christianity can take shape on the job.
At the end of our journey together,
we can promise that you'll be well on your way to:
· understanding God's personal
calling for your life;
· experiencing a sense of satisfaction
and a God-connection to your job;
· using your God-given skills for his kingdom while you're at work;
· feeling passion, peace, and
purpose about your time between nine and five;
· avoiding the typical fears and anxieties that strangle joy for
the average worker;
· creating a supportive synergy
between your family and your work life;
· feeling balance in all areas
of your life-a composite score of "well done."
The Misunderstood Territory
Magellan lived in a time when
many people still believed the earth was flat, that
to sail in any one direction for too long would take
you and your ship right off the edge and into the fire-filled,
bottomless pit of hell. The Wright brothers built an
airplane when the common thinking of the day was: "If
God intended men to fly, he would have given them wings."
Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in an era when many
thought space exploration was a violation of God's command
to "inhabit the earth." The Fourth Frontier is no less
shackled by the chains of misconception. Consider these
commonly held myths connected to work:
Myth 1: Work is a four-letter
word
It is part of God's curse,
delivered in anger by the Creator after Adam and Eve
directly disobeyed him in the Garden of Eden. Those
who embrace this myth see work as a career-long punishment
that all of us-past, present, and future-must endure
because Adam and Eve bought into Satan's great lie.
The truth is that work was one of God's first assignments
for Adam. Like the family, work is "a creation ordinance"-a
blessing and an assignment.
Myth 2: Work is enemy territory
It is part of the secular world,
not to be confused with the sacred world. "God-stuff"
includes such things as prayer, Bible study, worship
services, and donations of time and money to worthy
"ministries." Work is secular.
This approach is totally counter to Scripture. This dichotomy-this
split between the sacred and the secular-doesn't occur
in God's Word. In fact, Scripture spends a good deal
of ink and paper making the point that these two should
be tied together-that work is part of God's everyday
involvement with people.
Myth 3: Work is salvation
For people who buy into this myth, work becomes God.
They don't go to work; they go to Work. They don't seek
success; they seek Success. They don't have ambition;
they have Ambition. Their entire identity becomes wrapped
up in their job. This is a particularly dangerous side
of a "work is the family" culture, so much a part of
the New Economy. Many organizations, religious or otherwise,
sell a family-oriented culture as a benefit. And it
can be. People who take this idea to the extreme can
become emotional and spiritual prisoners to their jobs.
The difference between what we called workaholism in
the eighties and feeling passionate about your work
in the new millennium is one of motivation. Workaholism
has no place in the Fourth Frontier. The truth is that
work is a great environment in which to discover God
and to glorify God, but it is not God.
Myth 4: Work is the last priority
Many followers of Christ, if
asked to list their priorities, would order them this
way: God, family, self, and work. The fact is an integrated
holistic view of life includes work. Consider a new
set of priorities for life: God. That's it. There is
no number two or number three or number four. In living
out a commitment to that priority, we must make him
an integrated part of everything we do-family, self,
and work.
Besides, relegating work to
caboose status is as impractical as it is unbiblical.
If we really put work last, we would not leave for work
each day until we had done everything we should for
God, family, and self. We'd never earn a living! No,
the truth is that work is part of a balanced approach
to life and God-his Spirit, his truth, his love. God
shouldn't be left behind in the
family Bible on the nightstand
next to the comfy chair where we have our daily quiet
time.
The Rapidly Changing Territory
All kinds of shifts affect
the conversation of work and faith, just as all kinds
of shifts affect the planet we live on. During a recent
trip to Nevis in the Caribbean, we were walking with
our spouses around the end of the island that connected
the gulf with the Atlantic Ocean. We suddenly found
ourselves hitting a dead end-a washed-up area where
the beach and the land had collided to form cliffs that
cut our walk short. After talking to some locals, we
discovered that until Hurricane George had hit the islands,
it had been possible to walk around that end of the
island from the Caribbean to the Atlantic Ocean. But
the currents of the channels had changed; the hurricane
had reconstructed the landscape of the tiny island of
Nevis.
In the Fourth Frontier, there is a shift toward the soft side of
business. A few years ago the only criterion for success
was delivering results. Now most companies are looking
for someone who can deliver results and build people.
The path to the CEO suite used to be through the finance
or accounting departments. Then it shifted to the sales
and marketing departments. Now if someone wants to rise
to the higher echelons of the company, he or she must
have people skills.
Another shift in the Fourth Frontier is the surge of
Bible- or morality-based, principle-driven technology.
John Grisham's bestseller The Testament attests to this.
"This is the same John Grisham we've always known,"
the host of a national talk show said to Grisham, "only
there is a new character in your book, and the new character
is God." Ten years ago, Grisham's agent might have shuddered
to think that God and/or Bible-based conversation would
play a significant role in a plot for this famous mega-author.
Yet In 1999 the Los Angeles Times ran a fifty-page special
section on spirituality in the workplace; BusinessWeek
ran a cover story on religion and work; Fast Company,
which focuses on holistic solutions to work, became
the hottest business magazine in the mainstream market;
and The Life@Work Journal, which centers on the integration
of faith and work, began its second year of publication.
There is a move toward total-solution
strategies to life. Every sliding generation, from the
Builders to the Boomers to the Busters to the Bridgers,
has less tolerance for a schizophrenic, polarized lifestyle.
Each generation longs for a more holistic approach to
life.
Media and entertainment also
reflect this change. The neocommunity is work, not family.
Compare the top TV shows of past generations with the
top TV shows in this generation. Shows such as Leave
It to Beaver, Happy Days, All in the Family, and Dallas
centered on the family. Most of the top TV shows of
the late nineties and early 2000 center on work with
family woven in as the subplot: ER, Frasier, Just Shoot
Me, Caroline in the City, Ally McBeal, The Practice,
NYPD Blue. We see the change even within one ongoing
series: The Cosby Show of the eighties focused on Bill's
family; the Cosby show of the nineties focused on his
work. There are exceptions, of course. But by and large,
where the media once looked at culture and saw it in
the home, it now looks at culture and sees it at work.
The Uniquely Positioned
Territory
More than twenty years ago
a businessman visiting Mississippi College predicted
an interesting trend that made a lasting impact on me
(Steve). The evangelist of the nineties, he said, will
be the Christian businessperson. That speaker could
see the new platform for ministry beginning to take
shape, and today his prediction has come true.
According to an article in USA Today, "In the 21st century, more
religious leaders will be found in the corporation than
in the conventional church."4 BusinessWeek announced:
"A spiritual revival is sweeping across Corporate America"
and "gone is the old taboo against talking about God
at work."5 William Pollard, chairman of $5.7 billion
ServiceMaster, put it this way: In today's global community,
the greatest channel of distribution for salt and light
is the business community, the marketplace.
The horizon is full of promise
and potential. If we can learn to be the persons God
wants us to be in the frontier of work, we can unleash
an enormous amount of God's power into the world. What
would happen if 100 million followers of Jesus began
to understand what he desires from them at the workplace?
Can you imagine the integrity, professionalism, skill,
love, forgiveness, service that could come into play?
It is the marketplace that carries the traffic of a
lost world.
Imagine, too, the benefits
that each of us might find. As we discover (or rediscover)
the Fourth Frontier, we find a rhythm of family, church,
government, and work and begin to understand the kind
of life God has in mind for each of his beloved-a life
of hope, purpose, abundance, and wholeness.
The Waiting Territory
The Raid Gauloises is considered by many to be the most
rigorous and challenging expedition in the world. Participants
compete in some of the most extreme sporting activities
known to man: rafting, canoeing, horseback riding, camel
riding, dugout canoeing, sea kayaking, rock climbing,
skydiving, hang gliding, mountain biking, running, and
plain old swimming. In 1998, the competition included
climbing a six-thousand-meter volcano in Ecuador. In
2000, it started in Tibet and finished in India.
The Raid Gauloises usually
lasts about ten days, and the rules are simple. Teams
of five competitors (both men and women) and two assistants
work together to race across whatever rough terrain-mountains,
jungles, lakes, and rivers-the organizers have put before
them. There is more than one available route, but there
are checkpoints along the way. Physical fitness is not
the only quality required of team members. According
to the event's organizers, "Solidarity with the group
and being able to adapt, anticipate and know one's limits
are indispensable."6
The team that gets to the finish
first is declared the winner, but the race is about
more than winning. "Personal growth is far more important
. . . than competition," the organizers say. "Indeed,
setting out on the Raid Gauloises is the ultimate adventure."
Finishing requires planning, vision, and teamwork. It
pushes the participants beyond every comfort zone, forcing
them to engage in thrilling but emotionally and intellectually
draining challenges. It is advertised as "a start and
a finish. Between the two, a great experience!"7 And
while we personally haven't taken part, we suspect it
delivers on the promise.
But the Raid Gauloises comes and goes every year. Organizers must
find new locations, new challenges, new feats; to deliver
against their promises. And no more than forty-five
teams participate each year. It is limited to those
with the time, the desire, and the money.
The Fourth Frontier, on the
other hand, is open to everyone. For followers of Christ,
it is the real ultimate adventure. Work is assigned
by God, whether paid or volunteer effort, whether you're
doing the family laundry or designing a corporate merger.
Work forces participants out of their comfort zones,
challenging them to engage in thrilling but emotionally
and intellectually draining feats. And like the Raid
Gauloises, work requires a variety of skills and talents.
Participation isn't optional,
not for disciples of Jesus. It's a biblical mandate.
Followers of Jesus must embrace the challenge to engage
in the greatest opportunity for kingdom influence the
world has ever known. The marketplace. The Fourth Frontier.
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