9/4/24 - 2058: An Encore with Impact

Jim: You've tuned into iWork4Him, the voice of collaboration for the faith and work movement.

Martha: We are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. 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: In this country and in the church pews all over America, Christians have been taught that the American dream of retirement is biblical. That working hard for 45 years gives you the right to check out on vacation for the rest of your lives.

Baloney! Show me that scripture, would you? Is that in first hesitations? Our friend Doug Hunter knew that retirement was only a new phase in life, and not just 30 years of vacation. Doug knew that God had way more for him to do in his remaining years on this planet. As a successful businessman, Doug knew how to pour his life into others to bring out the best in them for themselves and for others.

Doug is a great example for all of us as he's learned to work with God in his retirement. Doug Hunter, welcome to iWork4Him.

Doug Hunter: I am excited to be with you. I love what you do and I love the fact that we are all working for him.

Martha: Amen.

Jim: Oh, we're working with him, Doug. That's what we're working towards. Working with him. That's right. That's right. Amen.

Martha: That's so good. So we can't wait to get started in talking about how God is using you in your retirement, but retirement with air quotes for those that are listening to the podcast. But first we want to hear how you became a Jesus follower.

Doug Hunter: Oh I'll do the short version, which of course is not necessary. That's great. My wife and I both grew up in church going families, but in a very liberal denomination. She grew up in South Dakota and I grew up in Colorado. And the denomination had a college in Oklahoma. We of course didn't know each other at that point, but we both made the decision to get away from home and go to Enid, Oklahoma. So we met at Phillips University and I won't tell you that story, but it, that's a great story.

Martha: I bet it is.

Doug Hunter: But what happened was when I got thrown out of that college we got married. Actually, we got married a year before I got thrown out. But when I got thrown out, we moved to South Dakota because I expected to be drafted. It was in the early seventies.

And when we arrived, soon after we arrived, Janet's sister, Judy, Janet's maiden name, by the way, was Snook. So that's one of the things that got my attention. What's a Snook? I had no idea, but I found out and I fell in love with a Snook. Her sister, Judy went to a campus crusade retreat at the university of Iowa and came home. Those were the days when you could go to the gate and meet people coming off the plane.

And as she was coming up the ramp out of the plane, Janet said to me, she's different. There's something about her. And she took us home, shared the four spiritual laws with both of us. Janet heard John 10: 10 for the first time, and it just struck a chord with her. It didn't do anything for me. But over the next six months, Janet's life changed right before my very eyes.

We were struggling in our first year of marriage, but she just changed. She started to love me and accept me and quit criticizing me. And as I watched her life change I knew I needed that. So on the way to sell my first elevator, I was in the elevator business for 25 years. I had learned to install them.

So I finally got an opportunity to go to sell an elevator to Dan Eagle, the chief of the Yankton Sioux Indian tribe in Yankton, South Dakota. And on the way to meet Dan Eagle, God and I had a conversation. It's a 90 mile trip so we had a good time to talk. And I just simply said, God, I don't know what you're doing in Janet's life, but I needed you to do something in my life because I'm sure not doing anything that's - it's not good.

And he answered that prayer, as simple as it was. And at that point, I didn't know what that meant, but I went home and a few weeks later, we got an ad for Expo 72, Campus Crusades, big meeting in Dallas. And I asked Janet if she wanted to go, and she said why would you want to go?

Because I hadn't told her anything about this praying thing. But I shared with her what had happened. We went to Expo and started to grow as Christians. She started in 71. I started in 72, and it's been an amazing trip ever since. So that's how I came to Christ on the way to sell an elevator to an Indian chief.

Jim: Love that. Love that. All right. So let's fast forward to the future. Let's go back to the future. How many years ago did you quote unquote retire?

Doug Hunter: I turned 65 in , let's see, what would that have been? I was born in 1948. So what's 65 and 48? 13?

Jim: Yeah, 13. 20 13.

Doug Hunter: 20 13, in 2013 when most people were retiring I accepted a call to Charleston Southern University to start a leadership center. So in the year I was supposed to retire I went to work for Charleston Southern and we started the Whitfield Center for Christian Leadership there in Charleston, South Carolina. That was the point at which I should have retired. Now I'm 76. So that's 11 years ago. And we grew that, that was a lot of fun.

Starting things has been one of the things God has put on my plate. And did that until COVID kind of destroyed that program and at least temporarily and a couple of other things brought us back to Atlanta. So that's been what's gone on.

Jim: So before you were retired though, you were in the elevator business. Things were always picking up.

 (laughter)

Martha: Oh, he's never heard that before.

Jim: I'm sure he never heard that before.

Doug Hunter: Our corporate verse was John 12: 32 where Jesus says, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw men to myself. So yeah, I was in the elevator business for 25 years, headquartered in the upper Midwest. It was a seven state regional company installed elevators, escalators. Just a wonderful opportunity with a wonderful organization.

Martha: I love that. So at what point in your career did you actually learn to work with God? Was that just naturally because of the time of your life when you met Jesus? Or did somewhere that get awakened in you?

Doug Hunter: There were two probably critical moments in answer to that question, Martha. One was when I started seminary. I thought I should be a pastor. I was called out of seminary in to business. And I won't tell you that story, but it's another one, when you've been around as long as I have, you got lots of stories . But when I left seminary, I had an opportunity to get involved with Bible study fellowship.

It's the world's largest Bible study. And I became the teaching leader of the men's class in Sioux Falls. And as I was teaching, the first year I taught was the history of Israel and the minor prophets. And that's where I first understood that everything I did needed to focus and depend on God. And that's also where I learned that the only place that retirements referenced in the Bible is if you're a Levite.

Martha: Yeah.

Doug Hunter: I wasn't a Levite, so I knew early on I wasn't ever going to be able to retire. That just wasn't a biblical thing.

Jim: We've had that conversation on iWork4Him many times, and on iRetire4Him as well. If you're not a Levitical priest, which is basically a butcher, the Levitical priests were butchers. They were slinging animals. And they did it for 25 years. And the scriptures are really clear after they retired, quote unquote, they went to train up the next generation.

All right. So today we're tiptoeing into this conversation about retirement from a biblical perspective. So now it seems like a great time to make sure that you all know about iRetire4Him,.a podcast that we had out there for four years. We have a book, a podcast, a YouTube channel, and a Facebook page that you can share with friends that are chronologically superior and help yourself better prepare for the years ahead.

Martha and I will put all those links in the show notes below, but just make sure you check out iRetire4Him and share it with, like I said, your chronologically superior friends.

Martha: So Doug, I have a question for you because now that you are in this phase of life, we're not going to say retired, but a lot of people look at you as retirement age.

Jim: What did she just say? A lot of people look at you and think old. That's what they think. They think old.

Martha: No. That's Jim speaking. This is Martha speaking. Doug knows how I talk. So this is going to be us here having a conversation. You're going to stay out of it. (laughs)

So you have a lot of kids and grandkids that typically your peers would think that's where you would just pour your life into them, check out for 30 years, whatever this vacations phase might be now. Move into a 55 plus neighborhood and that's all you're going to do, but that's not what it looks like for you. Why is that?

Doug Hunter: A number of reasons. One is that God has always put me in positions that I love, so working for him has always been a joy. It's not without its bumps. Don't get me wrong there because I've been fired and other things. But for the most part, everything that, that he's put me in the middle of I have loved and never felt like it was work. It was more of just an incredible blessing.

The priority of pouring into my grandkids isn't any less because I'm doing other things. The mentality that I'm sure I share with you is that I was just reassigned at different stages in my life. So I've gotten, I've had assignments now, especially over these last few years, that have allowed me to do the best of all of it. You know, we just kept our grandkids for all of last week because their parents were, our daughter and her husband, celebrating 15 years of marriage on a cruise. So we had the flexibility to spend a lot of time with them and keep them.

Martha: Awesome.

Doug Hunter: But at the same time I can do a lot because of the kinds of things we're doing now.

Jim: So I know that you worked at Charleston Southern helping start up that center for leadership, but now you are really in charge of , you help curate deepening partner relationships within the Pinnacle Forum. Talk to us about your role today within Pinnacle Forum.

Doug Hunter: Okay, the tough answer to that is that I haven't been with Pinnacle Forum for about three months now because of their leadership transition so they made some changes and that's all good. But what's happening with Pinnacle is that they are really focusing on the idea of those small Pinnacle Forum groups, which are groups of about 10, no more than about 10 or 12 men or women or young men or young women that are leaders and our wanting to be more impactful in the culture so they meet together every week for an hour and a half, and they sharpen each other. They work through resources. They make plans to be intentional in how they can impact whether it's the culture of their family or the culture of their city, or if they're running for national office, whatever it is.

So that's what's happening with Pinnacle right now. They're refining and improving that part of their offering. And then they'll be reestablishing opportunities for people across the Pinnacle world. And Pinnacle is a national organization. Opportunities for all of them to gather together and get to know each other beyond just their forum experience.

Jim: Okay. So that just was news to me, even though we're good friends, I had no idea. So that was an awkward question. Didn't mean to ask you an awkward question. So the really cool question is, so if God freed your future from Pinnacle Forum, where's God taking you next?

Doug Hunter: Yeah, that's a great question. One of the, one of the joys of, asking God about what this whole stage of life looks like. For me I've always served on boards and I happen to be on the board of two different organizations right now that are really exciting and impacting a lot. One is in the marketplace that you're a part of, the National Faith and Work Association. I'm one of the founding board members there and I'm vice chairman right now. And we're about to restructure and take it to another level because we've become the shepherds of the every two year summit for marketplace leaders. And we want to handle that well and support what you're doing as well as others in the marketplace movement in every way possible.

The other organization is a mission organization, 85 years old, called Partners International. I'm also the vice chairman of that board. And we're right now starting a search for a new CEO. It's a great organization that equips and expands the capacity of indigenous church planting movements in the hardest places to reach in the world.

And so I get a chance to work in the U S marketplace, in the global mission field, and then I'm on the advisory board for the Luson marketplace, the work that they do in the marketplace. And I'm on the board of the college of business at Charleston Southern. So right now I'm taking all of the things that God built into me and in one way or another, I'm building into other organizations by serving as a board member. All volunteer, but it's a lot of fun. Great people to work with, too.

Martha: It's interesting that at different phases of our life, our trajectory continues to change, and we have to step in those steps of faith and ask the Lord what it is that we are seeking. And I love hearing that from you, Doug, because we need to learn from the wisdom of others how God is using them.

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Jim: Doug, have you ever had an opportunity to mentor anybody?

Doug Hunter: Oh, yes. Yeah, the first organization that I became a part of was CBMC which at that point was Christian Businessmen's Committee, and now it's the Christian Businessmen's Connection.

But I learned early on there, that took the form of discipleship in their program Operation Timothy, where you've got a Paul Timothy relationship that takes someone deeper, a new believer. , but yes. One of the joys of developing in the technological evolution that we've been all been in is that I've got mentor relationships with people around the world.

One of the joys of my walk with the Lord has been, it's been global. Yes I mentor a limited number at a time, so I'm not going crazy and they're not getting less than they should, but I've been in mentoring relationships probably almost as long as I've been walking with Christ.

Martha: That's so good. And that's something that we've really been diving into lately, because for a lot of people, they think it seems so formal that they don't even know, like, where to start, who that would be. How would you have that relationship? What does it look like? And so I always like to dig in a little bit deeper, Doug, so that people can get a little peek into what that might look like in your life so that they can more practically see that that they could step into that role as well. So when you mentor somebody, what does that look like for you?

Doug Hunter: It actually, Martha, can take several forms, but it generally takes the form of someone that has been exposed either when I've spoken somewhere or been a part of a group. And I always try to make it known that I'm open to those kinds of relationships so that that people can at least come and we can talk about it.

But for me, it generally looks - there've been some that have been so intense that they've lasted. I just had lunch with a guy that I mentored for six years. We met every Monday for six years and spent time together, spend time with him as his family grew and we talked about, we worked through fatherhood issues and marriage issues as well as his business issues.

He was an executive with a bank. So there have been short set things along the lines of an Operation Timothy kind of situation. But there have been others that have been more relational and have gone on for numbers of years. In every one of them, the target has always been to, to help whoever it is I'm mentoring to be absolutely sold out to Jesus, to have a sense of what the calling of Christ is on his life or her life, primarily is. I don't one on one mentor women because of all the issues there. But then having them be intentional with a plan about what they're going to do as they grow, where they want to be, what impact they want to make, and how they're going to do that.

Martha: So I can imagine for most people listening, they look at that and they go, boy, Doug does nothing but give. How has that fed into you as you've been mentoring people over the years? Because I believe that you've probably gained a little something along the way.

Doug Hunter: Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's no relationship that's one way, that's all give and no get. For instance this man that I talked about that we did six years I watched him, he became a Bible study teaching leader and taught for 26 years. Just watching the impact that he had and knowing somewhere that, that I was a part of that.

And one of the most important mentoring relationship I've ever had has been with my kids. And it's watching where they are in their walk with the Lord and watching how God uses them and what he's doing in their lives. So it's all a matter of being able to taste the fruit in one way or another. It's not without its bumps. Again, I don't want to make it too all rosy. There, there are all kinds of interesting bumps along the way, but nevertheless, there is fruit that God makes sure you can generally see and enjoy and be encouraged by.

Jim: I love that, and I love the fact that you're pouring your life into others.

And we want to encourage everybody listening. Every believer listening, everybody needs a Paul in their life, somebody that's chronologically superior further along in the faith than you. Everybody needs a Barnabas in their life, somebody that's an encouragement. And everybody needs a Timothy, somebody you could be pouring your life into.

Just, that model is the model. And it's not like a specific discipleship curriculum, people. No, we're talking, pour your life into others. It's what it is. Doug, before we go, I want to ask you this question. You've experienced so much of life and you have great wisdom because you've shared it with us. We've been friends for a lot of years. What's one piece of wisdom you'd like to pass on to our audience today?

Doug Hunter: That's always a difficult question, Jim, nailing down one, but probably the most important thing that I learned in my life . Submission. And the lesson of submission and learning to submit to the Lord.

There's a great old hymn, Trust and Obey, that's a pretty good piece of advice. And I think you've probably heard it from many people that you talk to, but I've found that to be the best thing to learn early on. To trust God and then to obey God. What you have trusted him for when he tells you what to do with it. So that's my advice is to trust and obey and learn to do that as early in your life as you can.

Jim: Because there's no other way. Trust and obey. There's no other way. That's right All right.

And it just came to my thinking, so it's based on your testimony somewhere around 53 years of marriage. What was the one thing you did that helped your marriage be successful? You. I'm sure Janet did a lot of things, too.

Doug Hunter: I learned to obey.

Jim: Now, Doug.

Doug Hunter: No, actually, Janet's always been a couple of steps ahead of me, whether it was in school or coming to Christ or spiritual maturity. And even though I don't do it well, I think the thing that's really made our marriage a joy is that God taught me to listen to her and to obey him when I hear him speaking through her. And we just love talking and being together. So spending a lot of time and letting her know that she's the second most important person in my life every day. That's where that goes.

Jim: Very cool. Doug Hunter, thanks for joining us on iWork4Him today, sharing how your quote unquote retirement years have been explosive and fun and life changing. And I can't wait to see, besides these incredible board assignments that you've got, what God's got for you next. Doug, thanks for being with us.

Doug Hunter: Thanks for inviting me. It's a joy.

Jim: You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace? It's our mission field. But ultimately, iWork4Him.