FCCI

Early tomorrow (Saturday) morning my wife, Janet, and I get in our convertible (my later-life-crisis car) and take off for two weeks to celebrate 40 years of an amazing marriage – not perfect, numerous bumps … but definitely amazing!.  I had no idea on May 26, 1970, what the next 40 years would bring, but sharing them with Janet has been more than I could ever have asked for … if I had even known what to ask!

Two things you should know:  First, God used Janet to bring me into a relationship with Jesus.  We were not believers when we got married – and we barely made it through our first year – but when Janet’s sister, Judi, introduced her to John 10:10, “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly”, she knew she wanted that abundant / full life, so she asked Christ to be her Savior and Lord … and she got a new life!  It was her new life that led to mine.  In the months that followed, God began transforming my wife … a transformation that brought me to ask God to make me a new person, too.  He’s not through with either of us, but we can see almost 40 years of His fingerprints … a testimony of God’s commitment to us and to our marriage.

The second thing you should know is that God used the Fellowship of Companies for Christ International (FCCI) to teach us how to share more of life than we had thought possible.  Since Janet is a music teacher - and when I joined FCCI she was at home being an incredible mother to our four children - we had not considered that she would ever be involved in my business life.  However, it was at our first FCCI International Conference that we heard that God’s plan that a man and wife should be “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24) didn’t end when one of them left for the office!  We were challenged to evaluate how a spouse’s gifts could be an invaluable resource to the business – whether the spouse actually worked in the company or not. 

In our case, Janet is not wired for business.  She enjoyed riding the elevators and escalators that we installed and maintained, but we thought that was going to be the extent of her involvement with Carter Elevator Company.  FCCI told us to ask God if that was true … to ask Him to help us see how the way He had wired my wife could have a direct impact on the company … and HE DID!

We discovered that Janet – as do many spouses – has a great sense about people.  It soon became my practice that I would not hire anyone for a management or executive position without having Janet spend time with them first, and giving me her wisdom and sense of how they would fit our team and vision.  Of course, this was especially critical when I was hiring women who would be either part of our leadership team or serving as my executive assistants, but her sense of people was not gender limited. 

God used Janet to help make Carter Elevator Company a great place to work … and a great value when God determined it was time to sell it.  What I would have missed – what our company would have missed – if I had not heard from FCCI (actually, it comes from the Bible) that being one flesh does not take a break when I go to work.  How is that working with your spouse and your company?  What gifts, sensitivities, wisdom, possibilities has God built into your marriage that could make being one flesh an even deeper, transformational experience than where you are right now?  FCCI is still teaching it … it’s still in the Bible … and we are absolutely convinced that it is part of that abundant, full life that Jesus promised.

It’s been an amazing 40 years!  We’re still learning what it is to be one flesh.  At FCCI we’re still learning what it means to lead a company for Christ.  But this I know:  On Saturday, we’ll put a Ravi Zacharias or Max Lucado CD in the CD player (for later), turn on the “Golden Oldies” radio station, stop at Starbucks for Janet’s favorite latte, put down the top, point the Volvo south, and set off to celebrate what only God could have done – given us life … together … and given it to us abundantly!

Praying the Same for You,

Doug

President and CEO
Fellowship of Companies for Christ International / Christ@Work

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Cell:  678-358-9341
www.fcci.org
4201 North Peachtree Road
Suite 200
Atlanta, Georgia   30341

You don't waste your life by where you work, but by how and why.   John Piper