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Are you a Marketplace Christian? Have you longed to do more for God in "real" ministry? Do you wonder how to fulfill your spiritual calling and lay up heavenly rewards, even though little of your time is devoted to church activities? In this paradigm-shattering book, businessman and entrepreneur of the year Robert Fraser writes to the 97 percent of Christians not called to full-time vocational ministry but called by God to the marketplace. In practical everyday language, Fraser shares insights from his experience running a 250-employee software company which experienced sustained revival and business success during his tenure as CEO. In Marketplace Christianity, Fraser lays out a plan for:
Marketplace Christianity is full of second-to-none teaching for anyone whose calling and ministry are in the marketplace. |
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Robert Fraser Bio
Robert Fraser founded an e-commerce provider for business customers, including Xerox, Chase Manhattan Bank, and Samsung.
He raised $44 million in investment capital and guided the company to an average of 20 percent month-to-month revenue growth over 6 years, becoming the Kansas City metro area's fastest growing company between 1997 and 1999.
In 2000, Fraser received the Midwest Region Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Today Fraser is director of the Joseph Company (www.josephcompany.org), a ministry dedicated to restoring a vision for the marketplace, and a part of the International House of Prayer, a 24/7 prayer ministry in Kansas City.
Table of Contents
1. The Crisis in the Marketplace
2. Ten Kingdom Things Business Can Do
3. Six Kingdom Callings
4. The Leadership Gifts
5. What to Love about Money
6. Working As For the Lord
7. The Anointed Business Model
8. Priests in the Marketplace
9. Tending the Gardens of Our Hearts
10. The Charge of Joseph
Foreword by Mike Bickle
The vast majority of the western Church is comprised of marketplace people. They lead full, busy lives with 40 plus hours of work per week. Because their lives are necessarily less engaged in church activities, they have been traditionally viewed as less spiritual, causing them often to feel as if they are second-class spiritual citizens in the Kingdom of God.
This disenfranchisement of marketplace people has had many tragic effects upon the body of Christ. They find themselves spiritually bored and unsure of their gifts and callings. They lack a biblical understanding of how to blend passionate spirituality with their vocation. Most importantly, they have lost their sense of spiritual purpose and significance. This lack of vision has kept our marketplace people from taking their places of spiritual leadership, and as a result the church remains unprepared for the crises that face us in the decades ahead.
God is breathing on those like Bob Fraser who have a tried and tested vision for deep spirituality and passion for Jesus in the marketplace. He brings a fresh new understanding through his anointed business model that is based solidly on biblical foundations, as well as experiential knowledge. Bob masterfully bridges the gap between the board room and the prayer room with simple, profound principles that bring eternal meaning back into the daily experience of each employee, from the clerk in the mailroom to the most high-powered executive. Bob experienced a five-year revival within the business he began and grew to over 250 employees. As his pastor during this period, I personally saw hundreds of lives deeply impacted by this extraordinary company. He brilliantly describes how easily vibrant, full Christian community erupts from the marketplace when the principles of the anointed business model are employed.
Bob has a profound grasp of the critical role that Christians in the marketplace will play in the end time scenario that is rapidly unfolding. As well as addressing the subjects of creating wealth, the transfer of wealth into the Kingdom of God, and building cities of refuge, he also delves deeply into the heart attitudes and disciplines so necessary to succeed in the end time shaking, such as holiness, purity of motive, and the fasted lifestyle.
This new understanding of the value and potential of the marketplace is exploding as God draws attention to it through such anointed vessels as Bob Fraser. The implications for the cause of evangelism alone in the anointed business model are staggering. We have seen this model in action here at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City where Bob directs The Joseph Company. I have seen his students become successful entrepreneurs through the Goshen Business Incubator and heard powerful testimonies of lives impacted. I highly commend this book to you as a powerful tool for gaining understanding and recapturing vision for the possibilities of your spiritual destiny in the marketplace.
Mike Bickle,
Director, International House of Prayer of Kansas City