Have you ever wondered what it’s like to start a business or create your own ministry? Well you’ve come to the right place! These blog posts will serve to show what the journey looks like for both of these things, from startup to completion. Pioneering The Journey is here to be a guide and resource for people of all ages who desire to combine business and ministry and truly walk out their God given calling.
During this first week, we received testimonies from two business-passionate people and the insight they shared was remarkable. The first to contribute was Jude Steitz, a 20 year old business student. He and his business partner share the dream of reaching the fulfillment of a God given vision to have a long lasting nonprofit organization and ministry school in Europe, and here is his story on it!
Steitz was asked to share about his passion for business and missions, and the vision for the nonprofit. He expressed how early travel with his family opened the door to missions and from that point, dreams came alive. He said, “traveling went from pleasure to purpose” and he expressed how his involvement in all this really led him to pursue ministry at his current college, Valley Creek College. This served as a beautiful reminder how God puts us in places and environments to expose what his purpose for us is. Steitz later shared how after pursuing missionary work the Lord put a prompting to pursue business alongside that after being shared the vision/dream from his business partner. Steitz expressed how “when this vision was shared with [him] there was no talk of business and as [he] dreamed with God on the partnered vision [he] saw it being funded by business.”
With this, the dream coming together, it marked the birthing of a new reality. Steitz got to share practical steps on how to begin the gargantuan journey of creating this future with his partner. He shared how he leveraged using the dream and current business ideas to be the main focus of his schoolwork and he even shared how setting aside time in his personal relationship with God to dream was what led him to more.
So with all of this dreaming and practicality, he was asked to share one encouragement for those who desire to do the same things. Enthusiastically, he said that anyone who is interested should “get into experiences that cause [them] to dream. This truly is Matthew 6:33, ‘seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and all else will be added.’”
Now with that phenomenal advice, you get to go and do likewise! The next person who offered to submit their expertise was Casey Bates, a 39 year-old technology engineer and business man! He is the lead Software Development Manager at VariVerge, a data and print solutions business. Bates has crafted many websites of his own as well, and has also launched personal businesses, and the advice he got to share was some of the most encouraging there is!
One major take away from the interview was his response on what it looks like to combine his faith and business. He articulated how it was on “a church serve team doing web development when God blessed [him] with a renewed passion for software and business.” His eyes had been opened to something that was always there, but something he lacked vision for, and with this renewal of passion he pursued business again. His encouragement in all of this was to be a person of surrender, seeing business as a means to experience God. He shared that “When you give your business to God, he always comes through.” This really pieces together how the surrender of his business to God now brings him joy, prosperity and fulfillment of his purpose!
This is hopefully the goal for everyone when it comes to partnering business and ministry, and based on what Steitz and Bates shared, the possibility is more at hand than you may believe.
Hopefully these stories excite you and the advice motivates you to move forward on your passion and to PIONEER YOUR JOURNEY!
Jude Steitz, my business partner and friend | Casey Bates, a great dad, leader, and husband