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Our History Truth@Work
is the result of a vision that was birthed in the heart of Ray Hilbert
beginning in 1997. That vision was a culmination of personal,
professional, and spiritual experiences that he experienced over the
course of a decade after graduating from college with a business degree
in 1988.
Upon graduating with a marketing degree from Anderson
University in 1988, Ray took a sales position in a family owned
business. The business was founded upon Christian /biblical principles,
and the President of the company had been one of Ray’s Sunday School
teachers as a young boy. Ray had the opportunity to observe a business
man making decisions on a daily basis that integrated his Christian
faith.
After two successful years in that position, Ray was
recruited by a national firm to work in their sales/management field.
This gave him the exposure of working in a large company that was not
being operated on biblical, but rather on “secular” methods, where
“winning at all costs” was the standard model.
Ultimately, Ray
was then recruited to work for an international firm where he was
exposed to even greater diversity in hiring and business practices, that
while acceptable in the world’s eyes, conflicted in many ways with his
Christian faith and value system. He felt as though he were living in
two separate worlds- the “real” world of his work and career, and the
“Christian” world of his church, Bible Studies, etc. He felt no real
connection between the two, and sensed a tremendous isolation that he
was not successfully living for God in and through his work. Candidly,
Ray dreaded his career, and every Sunday evening would feel very
discouraged as he had to “gear up” for the work week ahead. This would
prove to be a relevant part of the foundation of what would later become
Truth@Work.
Partly in response to this conflict in values, along
with a growing internal desire to start and own his own business, along
with a partner, Ray launched his own company in 1991. The company
proved very successful. It produced and marketed clothing apparel with
Christian and pro-family values printed on hats, shirts, etc. It was
this experience that allowed Ray to use his business for ministry
purposes, as he was able to print and donate products for churches,
ministries, etc. promoting their messages. Additionally, with a
different partner, Ray launched a “buy-here pay-here” auto dealership
named “Golden Rule Autos.” Ray learned first -hand that this was a
business that would test his commitment to live out his Christian faith
in the way he conducted business as it required disclosure and
transparency with customers that ultimately in many cases cost him a lot
of money. So in these two business ventures Ray learned first -hand
that commitment to integrating one’s faith can be both rewarding and
challenging.
Through the combination of his work and career
situations, Ray gained a rich and diverse understanding of opposing
viewpoints of running a business-ones of running them on biblical
principles vs. running them on worldly values. These experiences began
to shape the early foundations of what would become the vision of what
is now Truth@Work.
Then, in the fall of 1993, a very profound
thing happened. Ray was asked to help promote the Promise Keepers
conference that was to take place in Indianapolis, Indiana in the summer
of 1994. Eventually, Ray sold his stakes in the two businesses to take a
full-time position on the staff of Promise Keepers, and he was
responsible for the work of the ministry in the Midwestern part of the
country.
From 1993-1998, as Ray traveled America in his role with
Promise Keepers, he talked with hundreds of men and their wives who
were struggling to integrate their faith in and through their
businesses, work, and careers. He recognized a pattern of people who
were frustrated and bored with their careers, not seeing any eternal
significance to what they did 40 to 60 hours per week, or any connection
to their Christian faith being lived out in the marketplace on a daily
basis. Ray could certainly relate to this feeling, as this perfectly
describes his own experience from a few years earlier when working for
the large international firm. It was in 1997 that Ray decided to submit
an outline of an idea to the leadership of Promise Keepers, looking to
see if the organization would be willing to launch a marketplace
ministry initiative within the structure of the Promise Keepers
organization. The primary premise of the concept presented to Promise
Keepers was to develop an ongoing discipleship/ coaching model that
would encourage men to live out their faith in and through their work
and careers, while equipping them to make biblically based decisions in
the midst of the “real world” daily challenges in the marketplace, while
earning the right to share the Gospel with customers, vendors,
employees, co-workers, etc. After learning Promise Keepers was not
interested in pursuing such an endeavor, and feeling a call of the Lord
upon his heart, Ray resigned his position at Promise Keepers to pursue
the vision. It was in the fall of 1997, when Ray approached Indianapolis
businessman Matt Peelen with the idea of partnering with him in
launching this new marketplace ministry endeavor. Matt was in the
process of selling his successful packaging business, and was seeking
what the Lord had for the next chapter of his life as well. So, after
much prayer, counsel, and thought, in early 1998 Ray and Matt created a
non-profit corporation called Truth@Work. While it was not clearly known
exactly how the new organization would function on a daily basis, or
precisely what this new marketplace discipleship model would look like,
Ray and Matt felt confident the Lord would direct their steps.
The
duo of Hilbert and Peelen were facing two critical issues: (1) The
model that the new ministry would offer that would provide ongoing,
life-changing discipleship in the lives of Christian business leaders,
and (2) structuring the fledgling organization so that it could develop a
sustainable revenue model that would allow it to flourish and impact an
increasing number of people.
So in March 2000, Ray and Matt held
an initial interest luncheon where they invited 25 Indianapolis based
business owners to participate in a vision casting lunch meeting. By the
end of March, 10 Christian owners had signed up to participate in the
first Roundtable Group, and the group held its first meeting in April
2000. Of that original 10 businessmen, currently six of them are still
participants in Truth@Work-more than 10 years later.
Present New Cities & Markets
In
2006, Truth@Work began to set its sights on developing expansion plans
to establishing itself in new markets. As it had packaged its program
through a variety of brochures and curriculum books, the organization
felt it was positioned to see if what it had developed could be
duplicated in other markets. Thus, committing to a 3 year beta test to
see if the model could be replicated and sustained by training others to
conduct the program, the ministry began identifying, recruiting, and
training Local Chapter Presidents to build and facilitate the monthly
Christian Business Roundtable model.
The three year beta-test
proved that with the right leader, the model could in fact be replicated
successfully, with the Chapter President having a successful and
sustainable marketplace ministry platform to Christian business owners
and leaders, while producing a strong part-time or full-time revenue
stream.
Then, in mid 2009, The Truth@Work Board of Directors made the decision to expand the ministry of Truth@Work on a national basis.
The decision was made to expand Truth@Work’s proven monthly Christian Business Roundtable model thru two distinctive approaches:
• Chapter President- ability to earn income building and facilitating one or more Christian Roundtable Group(s) on a community wide basis
• Church Ambassador- facilitating one or more Roundtable Group(s) in a local church as a personal ministry without income earning potential
In
order to support the growth strategy, Truth@Work has invested several
hundred thousand dollars in building a world class online portal
delivery and training system, and the ministry is now recruiting Chapter Presidents and Church Ambassadors on a national basis.
For Chapter Presidents and Church Ambassadors, The new Truth@Work portal provides several key benefits:
•
Several years of proven, online video, audio, and print content on a
wide variety of topics for the monthly roundtable meetings
• Viral marketing tools that quickly and easily share the model with prospective roundtable members
• Social networking functions that connects Truth@Work Members across the country
• Ability to “customize” marketing brochures for local branding of the roundtable model
For Truth@Work Chapter Presidents who are working to build a professional business model with Truth@Work, the online portal also provides:
•
Back office support system that provides complete invoicing, payment,
and collection services for monthly roundtable membership dues
• Ongoing online training and webinars featuring “best practices” of successful Chapter Presidents
• Complete “turn-key” webinars to market and promote to prospective Roundtable members
Future The
ministry of Truth@Work is committed to following the Lord’s leading as
it expands its footprint and impact-both nationally and
internationally. By partnering with external content providers, thought
leaders, experts, authors, and trainers, the goal of the online content
portal is to become the world’s leading platform for delivering content
to Christian Business Owners and Leaders through highly trained Chapter Presidents and Church Ambassadors.
Leveraging unparalleled methods and technologies, Truth@Work will
connect and network Christians in business, while providing Members with
“a life and business-changing experience” of monthly roundtable groups
with their Christian marketplace peers. Truth@Work is faithfully
working toward the day when thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of
Christian Business Owners and Leaders will be building world-class
businesses and organizations, while radically impacting the world and
marketplace with the Good News of Jesus Christ!!
If you would like to join us, or learn more, we would love to hear from you.
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