5/13/22 - Restoring the Dignity of Vocation: Jonathan Nowlen, Metron Manager

Intro: Welcome to the, iWork4Him podcast. I'm Michael miracle producer of the, I work for am radio program, the voice of the faith and work movement. Our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: You've tuned into iWork4Him, mouthpiece for the faith and work movement. We're your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg.

Martha: Thanks for joining us today. You know, I wanted to point your attention to some resources we have on our website that you may not have ever found before. But if you go to our bookstore, you can actually download the first chapter of each of our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him. It's a great way to see if that's a resource that's meant for you or for someone that you know, but go ahead and download that first chapter for free, and then you can purchase the book right there as well.

But we just, I always want to point you to new resources, things that you may not know are out there and want you to take advantage of.

Jim: That's iWork4Him.com/bookstore. Over the last nine years, we've introduced the iWork4Him, audience to hundreds of ministries, focused on helping all of us to connect our faith and our work and live it out in full living color for all those around us, to be blessed and to be a part of what God is doing in our lives.

About a year ago, I was made aware of a new ministry that had formed in the amazing bastion of Christian faith, Northwest Arkansas. For those of you that don't know Northwest Arkansas was founded by Sam Walton of Walmart and then JB hunt, trucking and Tyson foods. Each of these powerful organizations founded on biblical principles.

In actuality, Northwest Arkansas just feels like a safe place to be. It's not Mayberry, but it's a very nice place to raise a family. Jonathan Nowlen was called in Northwest Arkansas and is launched Metron Manager, a ministry dedicated to you the Christ center workplace. And their mission is to provide training resources and theology that will recover the dignity and mission of vocation and your life.

Jonathan is here to explain all of that. Jonathan Nowlen, welcome to iWork4Him.

Jonathan Nowlen: Well, it's great to be on the program, Jim and Martha, really looking forward to this and it's an honor.

Jim: Thanks Jonathan. You didn't live the normal life of an average American growing up in a city or a suburb or on a farm. Where did you grow up?

Jonathan Nowlen: It's a good question. You know, my folks were career missionaries and that's all, I pretty much remember growing up, we spent a large amount of my childhood all the way up through, into high school in Saipem Guam. And most of the 1980s and beliefs where my folks are pioneering a large mission training center for Youth with a Mission.

You know, we literally built a college campus in the jungle from the trees that were growing on the property. It was a great adventure growing up.

Martha: Wow. So yes, that is not an experience that most of us have had, but even though your parents were missionaries, when did Jesus intersect your life?

Jonathan Nowlen: You know, growing up in a mission community, you're, you're very aware of God.

It's from my earliest memory. But there's a big difference between knowing about God and knowing God. And so through a crazy set of circumstances, nearly dying on a jungle Trek that we were doing. I had a really powerful conversion and repentance experience when I was around 12 years old and I was a changed kid overnight, totally different person.

Jim: So how did all of that change your trajectory in life when Jesus intersected with you at 12 years?

Jonathan Nowlen: Well, I'd always known that I had a call to mission work, even from when I was really young, there was another American kid that I grew up with in Belize in the jungle. And we used to joke that we'd basically been ruined for the ordinary.

And there were only two real paths available, available for us, you know, either a missionary or a Marine. And I grew up to a missionary and he became a Marine. So there was no other choice.

Martha: Wow. What today you're in Northwest Arkansas. So what is, how did that - how did your life lead you to there if you were growing up in Belize?

Jonathan Nowlen: Oh, wow. A lot of ground to cover between those stages. It's a long story, but over the first half of my mission career, I was with Youth with a Mission and I'd worked in about 60 countries doing every kind of mission and relief work imaginable. And I've written books about those since. But particularly I was focused on working in the former Soviet union after the fall of the wall, that whole era in the nineties, but in 2007, through 2019, my wife and I helped establish a massive project that was officially working in the university system in China with a mandate to raise up the next generation of top students to become servant leaders of integrity.

It was an incredible project and we partnered with an amazing local, a set of believers who are heading up this effort. And we ended up impacting the lives of over 90,000 people in China and in the U S and around the world. So we ended up moving with west Arkansas to partner with the church here and really build out and conduct a flagship version of our program that would work in the U S or a Western context.

It was a great season of ministry, and we landed here to do that at the university of Arkansas and had a really great runway.

Jim: But God's got you up to something new and fresh. I started hearing about it a couple of two, three years ago, you call it Metron Manager. We all can find it online at metronmanager.com.

Why don't you tell us about it?

Jonathan Nowlen: Well, it started, really got traction, I would say at the end of 2019, when my book came out called Managing your Metron: A Practical Theology of Work, Mission, and Meaning. And late in 2019, God made it really clear. No. It was time for me to step aside from my long-time role as the executive director of that organization and launch a new ministry based on the book and the concepts that I've been building out in the book.

And it was definitely the Lord's timing. Sadly, our previous organization, it didn't survive. The negative impacts of COVID the university closures, political tensions with the U S and China, and God knew what was coming and gave us an opportunity. To step aside and launch a new project without even knowing COVID was coming.

It was just right at his timing. And over the last few years, you know, we've gone all in on equipment, your project, really dealing with missionized theology of work, practically helping people recover the dignity and mission of vocation. And I, you know, I better pause and explain the word Metron cause probably a lot of the audience don't know what that word means.

A lot of folks don't know. And it's, it's important. It's a framework word in scripture, you know, the apostle Paul, when he wrote in to the Corinthians, he was describing his sphere of responsibility, addressing what was in and what was out of his metron, outside of his sphere. And in 2 Corinthians 10:13, he says, talking about his own ministry in himself: we however will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits or the sphere, the metron which God has appointed us, that word sphere, the limits of the sphere is Metron. And that's where we get this concept that it's fundamental level. And I've built out a, like a general language version or definition of this that I use in my book.

And I say, it's a measure of responsibility, delegated by God, to you in the midst of creation, culture and spiritual history.

Jim: The practical side of that, and how that applies to everyone. Listening to this podcast, we're going to get in on our next segment. You're listening to, iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg checkout, Jonathan online MetronManager.com. Metron Manager.com. Don't go away. We'll be right back.

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With help from some friends, you will find a gathering place of podcasts that provides simple tools, faith stories, and conversations that will inspire and equip you to vibrantly live out your faith in your work today. Go ahead. Check out awakenpodcastnetwork.com and then be that kind of person and tell a friend,

Jim: Hey, welcome back to iWork4Him. As we talk today with Jonathan Nowlen, from Metron Manager, you can check them out online, Metronmanager.com. MetronManager.com.

Martha: Jonathan, I want you to really dig into explaining now that you've explained what Metron means. What does Metron Manager do? Like what is the concept? And as far as activities or, you know, just what are you producing what's happening?

Jonathan Nowlen: Yeah, that's a good question. Took, I took a while to try to figure out what are the needs that people have, because there's a lot of work. Christians in the workplace who are missional, they care about the great commission. They have an on mission mindset, but really I found that not a lot of people were engaging them or developing them or equipping them.

What I discovered was there was a need for training and equipping. So the Metron Manager podcast became a feature of that. How to develop people, my book and curriculum, and then a big one that's emerged as organizing what I call marketplace mission consultations, where we just pull together people who care about the great commission care about their faith impact in their workplace.

And we gathered them together in a supportive community. And, you know, we're coaching doing that on one-on-one or in small groups. And it's been really fruitful. So we're able to serve redemptive entrepreneurs, great commission companies and help people be really intentional. And on, on mission impact is the focus.

Jim: So you're, you're working specifically with business owners or people that run organizations and helping them to be intentional and living out their faith.

Jonathan Nowlen: I mean, it's the whole gamut. Yeah. It's the whole gamut. There's a lot of great commission companies, people out here in Northwest Arkansas that are running companies that are really intentional, really focused there, built these things to advance the kingdom of God and they need some support. They need some resourcing, they need some networking. We found that a lot of these folks are very siloed. There's good people in all these companies, businesses, non-Christian companies at all.

But they just don't know each other. They need to be equipped and drawn out and connected even in a small region like ours. So the consultations have proved to be really valuable to build this strength and unity and commitment. I think we had 12 companies represented at the last consultation, so, and they didn't, most of them never met each other, even heard of each other.

Martha: Wow. This has been really valuable, you know, it's so encouraging when you, when you are living in a city and not knowing of other things that God is doing, even within the city. Is what is happening with Metron Manager only in Northwest Arkansas?

Jonathan Nowlen: No, actually I didn't even really start it here. Initially. I have kind of a more national national ranger scope just because of my previous ministry that was helping people around the country, on these topics. And a lot of it is being done remotely during COVID. But now that COVID is over, people really want to gather back together in groups and community.

We've developed a lot of local tracks. So I'm still doing stuff on traveling next week, we still travel and do this. We still offer things widely, but we're really digging deep on our local community and trying to help build a model here and really serve the local equation in this region.

Jim: So give us, give us a practical example without mentioning names of, of how you come alongside, do this consultation, as you say, and help somebody be a more effective in being a kingdom company or kingdom organization. Give it, just give us some example.

Jonathan Nowlen: Well, a lot of it revolves around what I call recovering the dignity and mission of vocation. Even believers in the workplace, don't have a framework for understanding. Work is not a result of sin or the fall that it was pre fall that God gave us the original commission to work.

And so just even establishing a fundamental baseline that it is okay, you're not in some form of sin or disobedience or second tier level obedience to really lean into your vocation and go all in on advancing the kingdom of God. Doing things God's way in that space. So I really come in and help them identify what are the people, places and spaces that you are delegated by God in your Metron, what's your sphere.

And then what are the blockages or what are the limits that are, are stopping you from impact? Some of that's practical, but honestly, most of it is theological, spiritual, philosophical and also tactical on what ways of God need to be implemented in my space to move the needle towards the kingdom of God.

And that is an area I can help them in. And then once they've got that, they get freed up and they become much more effective and much more hope and joy filled in what they're doing. It's pretty exciting.

Jim: You're just dealing with people at the top level of organizations or people at midlevel.

Jonathan Nowlen: I meet with everybody from aspiring young college students, all the way to business owners and it's the whole gamut.

And I've found that no matter what is in your metron the same principles theology and practice applies. If you're a stay at home mom and your vocation is raising kids, or you're the president of a country, the same things need to be applied to manage that metron in the kingdom of God. And so it's across the board framework.

That's relevant, just has different expressions for people.

Martha: So you have a podcast by the same name, Metron Manager.

Jim: It's featured on the Awaken podcast network, awakenpodcastnetwork.com where you can find a hundred titles all focused on helping you live out your faith anatd your work Awakenpodcastnetwork.com.

Martha: Sorry you had that little break commercial, commercial break right there. And you know, we're, we're so grateful that you have a podcast that we can have on the Awaken podcast network, because it is a place where people can find where whatever, you know, niche they may be in or something that speaks to them. So to the listener that is curious, what is your podcast?

What does it focus on? What are you talking about there?

Jonathan Nowlen: You know, it started out as a way to expound on topics that were touched on in my book, but there wasn't room to contain in the book started really building out some discussion, some big ideas. In the book I create and lay out an entire misseology for the marketplace,

study and practice of missions, sociology study, and practice of missions. But what does that look like to the guy working at Tyson? You know, how does that apply? Is there a narrative in scripture that underpins. Him and his calling or someone in a different company or an missional entrepreneurs. So unpacking some really big topics, which then led to a focus on interviewing people who are actually doing this, who are practitioners.

Some are aspiring practitioners. Some of them have had great experiences. Some have had terrible experiences and just working through the. Aims to be redemptive and try to be redemptive in your space with people, places, and spaces around you. Some of them are pioneering, a redemptive companies in Africa.

Some of them are working in difficult corporate roles. Some of them are advancing the kingdom through technology and digital church expressions, but really just growing people's understanding of what the great commission means and how it can actually be engaged in. By an individual in the workplace because that's not taught on very often.

You usually are told you've got to quit your day job and go be a missionary. If you want to do missional things. Right. And that's not, that's not an accurate biblical message. So trying to course correct that and empower people.

Martha: So give it to, we have time for a quick story?

Jim: When we come back, we have a time for a story. What do you want him to share when we come back?

Martha: I do. I want you to share with us a story of somebody whose life was transformed when they understood how much God loved their work.

Jim: We'll be right back or more on iWork4Him with Jonathan Nowlen, from Metron Manager, online Metronmanager.com

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What's a metron you say? Well, Jonathan, what's a metron again?

Jonathan Nowlen: It's your sphere of responsibility that God's delegated to you that affects the people, places and spaces in your life.

Jim: Metronmanager.com.

Martha: So, Jonathan, do you have a story you can share with us as somebody who once they understood how much God really cared about their work, that what kind of transformation might've happened in their life?

Jonathan Nowlen: You know, the, when I, when I think about this, the story that comes to mind is where I really saw a wide scale impact of this year in Fayetteville. You know, I got asked to speak on on theology of work. Just hadn't been a topic we'd covered a lot. And there was a lot of interest around this and. I don't speak very often at my church.

It's very rare, but I got asked to speak on this topic and I didn't know how this would go over at all. And this was totally new. So I shared on just the basics, like 20 minutes on the basics of theology of work, recovering the dignity and the mission, the purpose of vocation, how it fits in the kingdom of.

And I kid you not. I got off the stage after the first the first service and I looked behind me and I had a row of almost 70 people lined up to talk to me before the worships was done at the end of the service. I'd never seen anything like this at my church. So there was a guy pulling on my sleeve and trying to talk to me during the worship time.

And it he's whispering in my ear. It turns out he's a president of a pretty significant university in our region and he sees. He's just verbally processing with me during worship about how this has just brought a reset, this message to what he's trying to do. His students at the university, how to capsulate the need they have and how impactful it was for him.

And then the next person that grabs me is this young gal. She looks like she's probably in her forties, but she's like 19 has no teeth. She's just gotten off meth. And she, she grabs me and she's like, I just got my first job working at McDonald's and she said, and I've just become a Christian, you know, I'm off of drugs.

She's like, I didn't think my life mattered at all. There was no purpose to what I was doing. She's like, this is totally reset my life. She's like, I can't wait to get back to work. And I started talking. This line of people and I kid you not after the second service, a group of 30 people followed me to my car in the parking lot, trying to talk to me.

I had like lawn mowing companies. I had immigrants. I had a different company reps that were out there and try to talk to me about getting in my car. I've never experienced anything like this and what God showed me in the. And vacuum the loss that's in the body of Christ right now that there is this loss of purpose, this loss of meaning this disconnect from God's original design, from the original commission to work and to bring transformation into creation.

And this was, this was as impactful for me as it was for these folks that talk to me, I've never had an experience like it before, or since.

Martha: Well, you know, one of the things that it makes me think of is that this message is very life-giving because it, you no longer are just punching a time clock. You know, when you understand that God has given you a sphere of influence that you are responsible for in your work and that it matters for the kingdom, then you have purpose.

We all want purpose, don't we, Jim?

Jim: Well, and so often, Jonathan, as you mentioned earlier on in the show that we run into people that think that in order to make a difference for God, they need to quit their jobs and go work in a church and go be a missionary. And that is not biblical truth. And what you're speaking is biblical truth all day long at Metron Manager that people need to check out online, MetronManager.com.

They're gonna engage with you no matter where they are in the country. Right. That's right. Yeah. Jonathan Nowlen. Thanks for being on iWork4Him today. Thanks for sharing about Metron Manager. And I can't wait for us to be on location with you in Northwest Arkansas sometime later this year. But thanks for being on today, Jonathan.

Jonathan Nowlen: My privilege. Thanks guys.

Jim: You've been listening to the iWork4Him program with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace is our mission field, and ultimately: iWork4Him.

Outro: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, the cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom. Wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer and invest: that is your mission field.

To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement, check out our books: iWork4Him, sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

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