The Marketplace Ministry Move of God

     When evangelist Billy Graham was recently asked where he saw God moving today, he described what is becoming known as the marketplace ministry movement of God.  In contrast to his crusades, he said, “today, I sense something different is happening.  …the Holy Spirit is working in a new way.  He’s moving through people where they work and through one-on-one relationships to accomplish great things.  They are demonstrating God’s love to those around them, not just with words, but in deed.”

     All over the world, men and women are taking Christianity to work with them – but not in the traditional manner.  They understand that Christianity is not a performance or demonstration of religious beliefs – it is a lifestyle which permeates every action, every minute of every day.  Christians are called to be influential in society.  Marketplace Christians desire for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

     For most of His life, Jesus had a marketplace ministry.  Although Jesus is both our King and our Priest, He spent much more of His life as a carpenter, than as a minister.  When Jesus did become publicly known, He chose fishermen, a tax collector, and other common tradesmen – none of the disciples were priests or scribes.  Jesus taught in the marketplace, and Jesus chose to call his disciples from the marketplace.

     There are people who will never hear the gospel because they will never enter a church building.  As Christians, you and I may well be the only representative of God that they will ever encounter.  Our work is our service to God when we reflect His life through our life and work.  Whether it is in Christian mission work, or working at the local hardware store, God calls each of us to our vocation.  He wants to use us where we are, while we are doing what we are doing.  God’s interest is not simply that we do holy activities but that we become holy people.  God created us to reflect His glory in whatever we do.  Whether you own your own business or work for someone else, you please God when you exhibit Christ-like attitudes of love, humility, grace, & power in your daily work. 

     God wants to use Christians in all areas of their life and work.  Marketplace Ministry proclaims Christ to the world by demonstrating God’s love and power to people who are all around us, wherever we are.

A Measure of Friendship

I just read Shut Up and Eat Your Snowshoes! by Jack Douglas.  Jack Douglas was a comedy writer who wrote for many TV shows and comedians from the 40's to the 70's.  He counted hundreds of those people as his friends.  At the point in his life covered in this book, he chose to move from Connecticut with his wife, son, 5 wolves, a cougar, and 2 dogs to Northern Ontario.  He bought a hunting lodge 116 miles from the nearest town.

It was 25 miles just to the nearest road.  Imagine going to buy groceries every other week!  His wife had a baby in -25 degree weather in a tent in a blizzard!  But that wasn't what impressed me the most.

What impressed me the most about this story was the New Year's party shortly after the baby was born.  The guests would have to make their own individual arrangements to fly to the little town in northern Canada in the midst of winter where they would all meet and be driven a hundred miles in a school bus to meet the Douglas snow tractor and ride the lumber sledge to the hunting lodge.  All of this for a party and an overnight stay of only one night.

They weren't sure anyone would come, but they all did.  Here is a partial guest list:  Jack, Randy, and Miriam Paar;  Merv and Julann Griffin;  Johnny and Joanne Carson;  Dean Martin;  Julie Newmar;  Diahann Carroll;  Barbara Eden and her husband;  Joey Bishop; Tony Randall; and several other less well known couples.

The copy I have is autographed To Jack, Miriam, and Randy Paar -- with much love, Jack Douglas.  So this was Jack Paar's personal copy.  I value it highly as a collectable, a story of appreciation of life and the wonders of God's creation,  an ability to find joy and humor in the midst of what most people would consider unbearable and unacceptable hardship, and most of all -- a statement of the value of a man's life measured by the number and quality of his friends.