James 4:14 says, “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You ...]]> In the 15 years I have served at Halftime, I've heard Bob Buford share this quote hundreds of times: “I have done the math and eternity is longer than time.” During Halftime Institutes, he points to this simple illustration:

James 4:14 says, “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

Do you believe that eternity is longer than time and life is but a mist?

My assertion is we would come closer to embracing this if we created margin where we could stop, reflect and listen to God, but most of us don’t. There are too many things to do, too many activities vying for our attention. It seems that in order to capture our attention, God graciously allows something to happen that forces us to stop and reassess.

My time out came just over two weeks ago when I heard, “Mr. Murtha, you have cancer.” Wow, I am 46 years old, in good health, run 4 miles a day, read my Bible and I have cancer? One of my initial thoughts was… what are my regrets?

The first thing that came to mind was that I have lived life to this point with a governor on my engine. At times I feel as if I haven’t gone 100%. Instead of diving into the moment I have throttled back and cautiously considered why I shouldn’t…

Ride that three-wheeled bike with my son Jackson in India?

Aggressively challenge people to truly follow Jesus into a life of significance?

Reach out to those we have served and ask them to invest in the unparalleled work of Halftime?

It is my commitment, from this point forward, to step out in faith and move beyond my comfort zone.

Jackson, when we are in India again, I commit to say yes to the bike and not immediately consider why we shouldn’t ride.

Friends, do you know your Ephesians 2:10 calling? Do you know why God placed you on this planet? We at Halftime are better equipped than ever to serve you on your journey to significance.

“May the last check bounce!” Linda and Bob Buford will have strategically invested the lion’s share of their philanthropic dollars by 2014. A number of friends have joined them in investing in Halftime which allowed the organization to grow from a concept to a proven service that I am convinced is a leveraged kingdom investment, more so now than ever. If you are interested in discovering the opportunities to invest in Halftime, please let me know.

Regarding the cancer, my family and I would certainly appreciate your prayers. On March 2nd, I am having surgery at Vanderbilt here in Nashville. We are confident in our surgeon Dr. Paul Wise, who is in the top 1% of colorectal surgeons in America. Since we seem to have caught it early, we are already praying for a speedy recovery. Please join us.

What are you waiting on? I pray that my wakeup call will serve as yours as well. What are your regrets? What would you do differently? Allow me to encourage you to consider these questions and adjust your life accordingly

Halftime, the Dallas-based non-profit whose work inspires and equips marketplace leaders to transition from success to significance, announces a new role for a longtime staff member.

Bob Durfey has accepted the Managing Director position for Halftime Boston and will oversee the group's newest branch of the rapidly growing movement. He has been an integral ...]]> For Immediate Release

Halftime, the Dallas-based non-profit whose work inspires and equips marketplace leaders to transition from success to significance, announces a new role for a longtime staff member.

Bob Durfey has accepted the Managing Director position for Halftime Boston and will oversee the group's newest branch of the rapidly growing movement. He has been an integral part of the Halftime management team since 2008 with global responsibilities to various affiliates and clients. Prior to Halftime, Durfey served a 30 year career as a helicopter pilot in the US Coast Guard, twice being stationed in the Boston area.  Captain Durfey's last assignment was overseeing the Coast Guard's public affairs and congressional work in the northeast.  The Durfeys have lived on Boston's south shore for almost eight years.

Halftime CEO Dean Niewolny stated, “Bob has proven himself as a gifted and creative leader. His extensive experience among ministry and marketplace leaders will provide a strong foundation as he directs our Halftime programs in the Boston area and casts a vision for the future growth of our new branch in that region."

Halftime (www.halftime.org) grew from the 1995 book of the same name by Bob Buford, The bestseller continues to prompt thousands of successful men and women to pause, reflect on what really matters and redirect their time, talent and treasure toward eternal pursuits. Halftime supports this initiative through strategic resources, events, books, video, assessment tools and coaching services.

For more information, contact Bob at 781-738-2725 or Bob.Durfey@halftime.org

For the past twenty years, I have focused on a mission statement given me one morning in the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles by my guide and mentor, Peter Drucker.  He said, after eight years of working together, “It is your mission to work on transforming the latent ...]]> Success to Significance Becomes a Global Phenomenon

For the past twenty years, I have focused on a mission statement given me one morning in the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles by my guide and mentor, Peter Drucker.  He said, after eight years of working together, “It is your mission to work on transforming the latent energy of American Christianity into active energy.”  That mission statement has served me well but it is becoming increasingly obsolete as the United States is no longer the center of the world.

Let me give you two examples from just this past two weeks.  This past Wednesday I received an email titled “Greetings from Korea.”  The writer described himself as a senior researcher of a Christian Research and Education organization in Seoul, Korea.  He said, “For the last several years, (a colleague and I) have been studying theological topics closely related to Halftime.  We have read all of your books from Halftime to Finishing Well and ever since then been constantly teaching and preaching their main ideas in different colleges and churches.

“We think our ministry’s mission and goals correspond with yours and this vocational similarity encourages us to contact you to see if there is any possibility of our ministry to be connected with yours in one form or another.  Mr. Buford, we don’t just appreciate your past achievements and works but we also look forward to what your unceasing commitment would bring in the future.”

The writer did his PhD at Princeton Theological Seminary in Christian Ethics with particular focus on economic life and culture.  He was joined in his request by the pastor of a Presbyterian church in Seoul that has 30,000 members.

The writer continued, “(Both of us) share a common view that the Korean Christian community as well as Korean society in general are in much need of Halftime ministry.  As you may understand, Korea has accomplished a very compressed form of economic growth over the last forty years.  But rapid economic growth has been accompanied by a highly competitive and success-driven culture.”

Just a week earlier I had received a similar email from a man from Ghana.  The writer had followed an eighteen year career in the corporate world by starting what he called a small Christian Retreat Centre as his success to significance transition.  He said, “I have for some seven years now had this strong desire to help people move from the small mindset of ‘me, myself and I’ disease that plagues most successful Africans largely because of where we are coming from.  As a result, Africa has a stunted growth in the face of a huge unimaginable potential and fortune.”  He, too, desires a working relationship with our Halftime group.

What’s going on here?  Success is spreading around the world rapidly.  It is obvious that the United States is not going to be the only big dog on the block anymore.  We may be the biggest military power, but most indications are that places like Singapore, Brazil, and other previously “third world” powers are breeding a class of highly successful entrepreneurs.  A large and growing number of people across the world are going to be much better off in terms of financial capacity than anybody in history has ever seen.  But, of course, they face the same challenges of money vs. meaning that we are so familiar with in the work of Halftime.

Wealth and recognition bring with it a host of other issues, hubris being somewhere near the top of the list.  Charles Dickens wrote in the eighteenth century, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”  That is probably a pretty good description of our situation as well.  The best of times because so many more people have the advantages of money and social mobility; the worst of times for prosperous people (the top 20%) because many of them begin to live for themselves lives of pleasure, idleness, and running up the score as fast and as long as the law will permit.  I confess to being a recovering member of that class though I, thank God, balanced my intense competitive desire with other goals (marriage and family, serving God by serving others).

Others, wiser than I, saw the danger for the US culture as we entered the 1980′s.  Listen to what Alexander Solzhenitsyn said in his now-famous Commencement speech to Harvard University graduates in the spring of 1978, “I hope that no one present will suspect me of offering my personal criticism of the Western system – to present socialism as an alternative. Having experienced socialism, I certainly will not speak for it…But should someone ask me whether I could indicate the West such as it is today as a model…frankly I would have to answer negatively.” He goes on to say that in the West he sees spiritual exhaustion, materialism, manipulation of the law, and misuses of freedom. “All the glorified technological achievements of progress, including the conquest of outer space, do not redeem the 20th century’s moral poverty which no one could imagine even as late as the 19th century. Only voluntary inspired self-restraint can raise man above the world stream of materialism.”

Solzhenitsyn’s Address stirred up all manner of controversy, but in retrospect both Dickens and Solzhenitsyn seem to be a good prediction of the both/and time we are living in right now.

Hear this from my friend, Patrick Morley, now a prominent author, who talks about his former life, “My unspoken credo was ‘money will solve my problems and success will make me happy.’  I would set a goal, work hard, meet the goal, and then experience euphoria.  But two weeks later, the good feeling was gone, and I would have to set a new goal.  The new goal, of course, always had to be bigger, brighter, faster, or more expensive than the one before.

“But all those met goals became a string of hollow victories increasingly unable to deliver the fulfillment I craved.  I had a disease they might call success sickness.  It is the disease of always wanting more but never being happy when we got it.  I was miserable.  And angry.”

As you can tell from the emails at the beginning of this museletter, this success sickness is a disease people are beginning to be concerned about around the world.  It is a pursuit that squeezes God out of the equation in many cases.  Life begins to go on autopilot.  Solzenitzen sums up, “Is it true that man is above everything?  Is there no spirit above him?  Is it right that man’s life and society’s activities should be ruled by material expansion above all?  Is it permissible to promote such expansion to the detriment of our integral spiritual life?”

That seems to be a question increasingly being faced in Korea, Ghana and the now developing Third World.  I guess I need to expand my now obsolete mission statement.  What do you think?

Recommended Reading:

Solzenitzen’s Harvard Address (www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/SolzhenitsynHarvard.php)

“The Great Divorce” by David Brooks, NYT, January 31, 2012.  Brooks says, “I’ll be shocked if there is another book this year as important as Charles Murray’s Coming Apart.  I’ll be shocked if there’s another book that so compellingly describes the most important trends in American society.  Murray’s basic argument is not new, that America is dividing into a two-caste society.

Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, by Charles Murray (Jan 31, 2012).  A great read.

Man Alive: Transforming Your Seven Primal Needs into a Powerful Spiritual Life, by Patrick Morley (Jan 17, 2012).

How The Mighty Fall, by Jim Collins (May 19, 2009).  The five stages of decline.  Stage 1:  Hubris Born of Success.

Todd Wilson of Exponential emailed Bob Buford and me last week. They are preparing for their outstanding annual conference in April and writing short essays on 25 leaders from the Bible.  

As Todd wrote, “I've come to realize that of all the Bible leaders, the Apostle Peter may be the ...]]> By Dean Niewolny, CEO - Halftime­­­

Todd Wilson of Exponential emailed Bob Buford and me last week. They are preparing for their outstanding annual conference in April and writing short essays on 25 leaders from the Bible.  

As Todd wrote, “I've come to realize that of all the Bible leaders, the Apostle Peter may be the perfect poster child for Halftime. He was a high capacity guy and one of the most successful fishermen in the area.  I'm attaching a devotional on Peter, written from a Halftime - Success to Significance perspective”.

Thanks for sharing it with us, Todd. I cannot agree with you more. Here’s an edited version of that essay that I can easily hear Peter saying himself…

“Pursuing God’s Calling”

Mark was working on his account of Jesus’ life and asked me for stories of the time we spent with Jesus.  He asked me why it was so easy for us to leave everything and follow Him.

I smiled.  It wasn’t easy at all.  It took more than a year for me to be ready.  I had met Jesus a year before the night He called us and my fishing business was doing well.  Even though I was aching for a change, that final decision to sacrifice it all was the hardest thing I’d done to that point.

Success is difficult to set aside.  It becomes a question of significance and legacy.  I didn’t want my gravestone to read, “He sold a lot of salted fish.”  I worked hard to build a life.  Now I would be faced with the choice to leave it all behind.

I drifted into memory and heard my voice recount the story to Mark of the days we became His disciples…

It was going to be a long night.

As the waves lifted and fell in gentle rhythm, my hands found their resting place.  The wood was worn smooth from the sheer volume of times I had touched the railing in this exact spot.  I loved this time of night, even when the fish weren’t moving.  It was beautiful stillness. 

That was on the outside.  Inside I was boiling for things to change.  Somehow I knew that a new chapter was beginning but it was frustrating to not see my next step clearly.  It was a discontent that had no anchor, no lines mooring it to anything I could point to as real. 

Calling out commands to stop, our boat slowed and I motioned for our team to throw the net.  Their calloused hands, full of grace and synchronicity threw the lines out over the darkness into the sea.  As it slowly fell into the deep in practiced silence, my thoughts descended too, sinking into darkness where I couldn’t see.

There was nothing in my life that merited this level of unease, but I was surrounded by it nonetheless. 

Is this all there is? 

I had success in business, owning one of the largest fishing operations in Galilee.  I spoke and dreamed and traded with partners who respected me.  I ate and lived with a good family and I had known love.  Somehow I was still adrift.   My life was worn smooth from the touch of years, bringing no comfort.

I wasn’t in focus.  Something just had to change.

We waited.  So much of fishing is the waiting.  The men spoke of children in quiet tones and, like all stories of children, the exploits were completely ordinary, except to the fathers who loved them.  The night stretched on as Andrew told me stories of John the Baptist and the time he had spent with him the last few months.

We pulled the net for the first catch of the evening and I murmured under my breath when it was empty.  Not a single fish!  That happens, but it’s been years since I’ve seen an empty net return.  My oldest team member barked a laugh at the dismay of the younger men and offered to let them sit and rest while he continued to work.  Shame isn’t always a good motivator, but this time it worked pretty well. Again I watched the practiced motions of a thousand throws, on a thousand nights, their legs and arms coiling and releasing in the carefree motion of a thousand memories, just like this one.  The net flew, extended and sank for the second time.

We waited.

Andrew was telling me again about the Carpenter and the amazing things God was doing.  I’d met Jesus and heard Him speak.  Andrew was right, there was something different about Him.  He spoke with a power and a love for God I’d never seen and the stories about miracles were growing.  John the Baptist was saying that He was the One.  It would be perfect if the Messiah came and sent the armies back to Rome.  Israel was long overdue for her coming King.  I would love to be a part of that revolution.  That idea was exciting and scary all at the same time.  I had a lot to lose.

We pulled the nets and again caught a boat full of nothing. It was time to move.  We set for our second location and I could see that the men were becoming discouraged.

Glide.  Gather.  Throw.  Sink.  Wait.

Still no fish.

The night was an empty boat and we were getting weary.  I signaled the other crew to start for shore and joked with my men as we turned to the north.  The earth held its breath as the sky lightened from amber to the brilliant crimson of a new day.  We hit the shore, secured the boat and started unloading.  Andrew cut the men loose for breakfast, sleep and time with their families.  We had one more night before the Sabbath and I set a time for us to meet again before they doggedly walked away.  I told Andrew to go as well but he just gave me that look that brothers give before pulling a section of the first net and starting to scrape it clean. 

We were still cleaning the nets when the crowd started to gather.  People were buzzing about Him – have you seen Him?  Is He really on His way?  I heard He healed a blind man and now he can see… Their whispered voices slowly gained strength and echoed out over the water.  I didn’t see Him approach, but suddenly He was there, drawing Andrew into a warm embrace.  I stood and tried to wash my hands clean before greeting Him but he didn’t seem to mind.

“Simon, can I use your boat to teach from”, He asked.  I glanced at Andrew, who was grinning from ear to ear, and of course I said yes.  It was a good idea.  Sound carries over water and as the hundreds of people who had gathered at the beach sat, Jesus began to speak.

I was exhausted, irritable and resentful of the extra time being taken.  It was the worst day my business had experienced in months.  I hadn’t eaten, slept or bathed in far too long. 

But with the Teacher in my boat, speaking God’s life and love to everyone around, my heart was energized.  In a small way I felt like I was a part of something significant, a partner in ministry, at least for a few moments.  It felt good.  I felt alive in a way I hadn’t felt in years.

When Jesus finished and dismissed the crowd, I found myself wanting Him to stay, but was afraid to ask if He wanted to eat with us.   I wanted to impress Him, to make myself important in His eyes.  I wanted to let him know that I was the owner of this small fleet of ships and that our salted fish kept people fed from here to Nazareth and sometimes all the way to Egypt.  As I started to take Him back to shore with unspoken rehearsed words on my lips He nodded to the south and said, “Sail into the deeper water and let down your nets for a catch.”

My thoughts came quickly, almost instantaneously and were, in no particular order:

-          No

-          The fish aren’t running this time of day

-          I’m tired

-          We just cleaned the nets, I don’t want to scrape them again for nothing

But there was something about the way He said it and my heart was beating faster.  In spite of every reason and objection I immediately replied, “We’ve been at this all night and haven’t caught anything, but at your word, we’ll cast our net again.”  In the corner of my eye Andrew was nodding in approval.  It seemed that whatever was happening, he felt it too.

Our weary nets spread and splashed, froze, then slowly dropped and I experienced a moment of double vision.  Part of me was saying, “This is pointless” but a deeper part was saying, “Watch this!”  I glanced at Andrew as the line jumped out of my hands and I had to scramble to keep from getting pulled in.  The boat lurched and dipped crazily towards the sea, being pulled toward the net.

That’s not possible. 

The net was filling.  I could see schools of fish flooding into it, just under the boat and they kept coming.   When we tried to pull the catch into the boat, the net started to tear so we eased the lines back into the water to keep from losing the fish. 

I called to the shore for help and they immediately launched out to help us.  We pulled our second boat alongside with practiced motions to capture and load the catch.  There were so many fish, both boats were swamped as we made our way carefully to the shore with a small fortune.  Andrew was giving me his best, “I told you so” brotherly glance.  We had more than fifty years of experience between us and none of us had ever seen the like.

The weight of the morning continued to build until we got the boats upon the shore and I collapsed.  The combination of the night’s work and frustration, the path of my life and inner turmoil, the amazing words of our Teacher and the miracle we had just witnessed was too much for me to bear.   This wasn’t a story for other people, some rumor of God moving and doing amazing things far away.  It was horribly present.  God was moving nature itself to speak to me and I suddenly felt very small.

In the very gaze of heaven I fell to my knees.  “Lord, go and leave me here, I’m full of sin and not worthy to be in your presence.”

His hand on my head and his touch raising me communicated kindness and purpose.    Speaking to me and my brother, partners and friends, he called us to service.  “Don’t be afraid.”  And somehow we felt peace.  “From now on, you’ll catch men.”  And we knew it was true.

We looked at the catch, at our ravaged nets, at our boats overflowing with fortune. Looking at the success we had worked so hard for, it was hard to walk away.  But that’s exactly what we did, to follow Him.

When the chance comes to leave everything else for what God calls you to do, do it.  Do it without hesitation.  You’ll sacrifice more than you imagined and question that decision a thousand times. But hang on with both hands to day that He called you. 

It’s worth it.

After several low cost probes and a part-time consulting role with the Halftime organization, I was ready to make the transition from business to full-time ministry. We decided to take a 6-week family summer vacation in France to recharge and ...]]> One of the best ways to build capacity in our lives is to simplify our lives.

After several low cost probes and a part-time consulting role with the Halftime organization, I was ready to make the transition from business to full-time ministry. We decided to take a 6-week family summer vacation in France to recharge and reorient our family to this exciting change.

The problem was money. I was staring at a 50% pay cut with my new ministry salary so the typical airfare/hotel/rental car vacation would blow our budget. Necessity being the mother of invention, we decided to try a home exchange and quickly found a French family interested in swapping. We swapped our houses and cars as well. We flew us­ing frequent flier miles. All told, the trip cost us $0 (you read that right). Sure, we had to buy groceries and pay for a few touristy things, but we would have done that back home in Colorado anyway.

You may be saying, “What about your stuff back home? What if something gets damaged or stolen?” We made some provisions to mitigate that risk and felt the $20,000+ savings was worth it.

What really struck me about this experience was that living in a 1200 square foot apartment in downtown Paris and a 1300 square foot farm house with no TV or wi-fi in the south of France was delightful. The small size of the homes moved our family of five physically closer to one another. The result was we talked and laughed and played and dreamed more. Back in Colorado, our much larger house spreads us out so we tend to be isolated unless it’s dinner time. When it comes to square foot­age, I can unequivocally say less is more.

We’ve since travelled virtually free with other home exchanges and the biggest blessings have come from things other than saving money. Staying in a home in a real neighborhood gives us the opportunity to be immersed in the local culture and get to know families in the areas we have visited. Thanks to Facebook, my kids have lifelong friends in countries all around the world that they would not have if we went to hotels and all-inclusive resorts overrun with Americans.

My point is not to be a spokesperson for home exchanges, but to show you one example of how downsizing aspects in our life has always led to great, unexpected blessings. For us, and many Halftimers I know, scaling down has been more like trading up.

What else have we downsized? We got rid of our horses. Michelle and I enjoyed them but our kids didn’t and it created a time-divide in our family. And it’s been a blessing to have two families who have fallen on hard times be able to store things in our barn.  Ask anyone who’s gotten rid of stuff they owned (or were owned by) and they’ll tell you about the freedom they feel.

I am not suggesting nice things are bad. It depends on how you relate to your nice things. Do they promote and enable the important spiritual and relational things you want out of life? Or do they create clutter and busyness, and prevent you from engaging in what you really care about?

The places to look for simplicity don’t stop with homes, vacations, hobbies, and “stuff”. What about your kids’ activities? I know of several families running their children ragged playing 3 sports at time (I’m not exaggerating) for fear that if they don’t show commitment to the team, they won’t get playing time or that college schol­arship. My son made the top baseball team in our town when he was 9. They played 55 games that summer! It nearly destroyed our family being split up every weekend. The next year he played on a team that played 16 games – normal.

How about your car(s)? Is it leased and plummeting in value everyday? Or did you put a down payment on it and now find yourself saddled with steep monthly payments? Many people come to us at Halftime dreaming of a life of significance but their financial obligations are so high, if they take their foot off the money-making pedal the world will come crashing down.

I knew a prominent judge who received a phone call from the President of the United States one day, asking him to consider a Supreme Court Justice nomination. He had to decline because his super-successful law practice had caused him to inch up his lifestyle and debt over the years -- almost impercepti­bly --- and he couldn’t afford to take the most prestigious job in his profession. I asked a friend of mine why he was putting up with the board of directors’ pressure, 14 hour days and the crazy travel. He told me “that’s the price of wealth and wealth equals freedom.” He (and me at one time) had been sold a bill of goods. All of us could be free in the next 5 minutes if we weren’t so attached to status and stuff. My hope for my friend is that he can sell his company before he has a heart attack, gets dumped by his wife or estranges his kids. He estimates he needs just 5 more years. Time will tell.

My encouragement is to not strive for simplicity in your finances and calendar because it’s in vogue or seems spiritual. You’ll end up angry if you do it for reasons like that.

The trick is to truly find joy in slowing down and simplifying your life so that your mind and heart are freed up along with your finances and calendar.

What can simplicity result in?

-       Joy in being released from financial obligations so you can focus on what really matters to you.

-      Joy in deep, extended reflection and communion with God — as opposed to a 20-minute “quiet time” jammed into your day. You can’t get your assignment from God if you don’t carve out the time to listen to Him.

-     Joy in friendships. For many, their whole lives are about work and family (this was and still is a problem for me). Getting reconnected with guy friends has been a huge source of joy for me and many Half­timers I know. I find it takes more effort and intention than it did when I was younger, but its well worth it.

-    Joy in generosity. Over the years, using our second house in the ski country had become a chore. By far, the best part of owning it was blessing others by letting them use it with their families.

-    Joy in being in God’s creation. Taking my dogs for a walk in the woods with my wife after a Rocky Mountain thunderstorm is a treat. Get outside.

If things like this don’t sound appealing, you won’t succeed in simplifying your life. It’s impossible to be moti­vated to attain something that’s not appealing to you. On the other hand, if you get a taste of the peace that comes from things above, you’ll break down walls to get more of it.

Simplicity is more than tactics leading to an organized garage, a less frenzied calendar, or lower debt. It’s about a deep de­sire to create mental, emotional and spiritual room to breathe easy. It’s an emotional detachment from things and results and a reattachment to God and people. One helpful way to think about simplicity is to no longer see it as an all or nothing proposition: Try implementing a few things and see if simplicity has an effect on you as it has had on me. Six years into my second half, I’m no longer riddled with anxiety when some of my hours, and even days, aren’t super-efficient, productive or pragmatic. In fact, I relish them now.

Blessings,

Jeff Spadafora

Director of Coaching and Product Development

Many successful people attribute their success to attitudes such as independence, self-reliance, courage, hustle, ...]]> U.S. President Herbert Hoover created a romantic notion of the American ethic when he coined the phrase Rugged Individualism. In the business world (the U.S. and internationally) there’s a similar value – “the boot-strapping, self-made millionaire” – that permeates the businessperson’s psyche.

Many successful people attribute their success to attitudes such as independence, self-reliance, courage, hustle, and aggressiveness. While this may have been their mindset, I have found with further questioning, for most Halftimers, this was not their practice. The men and women I encounter have been intentional about relying on the input and expertise of friends, consultants, business partners, and family members to grow their businesses.

And yet, the number of people who aspire to discover and embrace God’s calling for their second half, and attempt to do it on their own, is extremely high. Besides being unbiblical (the Bible is ripe with life lessons based on relationship, discipleship, and seeking counsel), the “Cowboy” approach to Halftime is impractical. Renowned business management guru Peter Drucker said the baby boomer generation is “over-prepared for Life I, unprepared for Life II, and there is no university for the second half of life.”

You see, the Halftime Journey is not simply a redistribution of one’s time, talent and treasure to a more noble cause. It a transformation of our hearts, our identities, our “life scorecards.” For many, this is uncharted territory fraught with challenges that can drain your energy, time, relationships and finances if you don’t have a roadmap.

At the risk of putting the Holy Spirit into a formula (after all, this is a faith adventure between you and God) the Halftime organization has built a roadmap with tools and best practices to help people like you discover your life purpose and pursue it in a balanced and joyful way. This roadmap and toolbox are available to you when you engage a Halftime coach .

Our coaches have 3 unique characteristics:

1. They are Halftimers who have personally made the transition from Success to Significance®.

2. Of all the ministry opportunities available in God’s kingdom, our coaches whole-heartedly believe their purpose is to help others discover their purpose.

3. They are trained and professionally certified in the unique Halftime Coaching process.

If you are serious about making eye contact with God to start building more joy, kingdom impact and balance into your second half, I encourage you to engage a Halftime coach in your journey . For some, this is uncomfortable because they’ve never used a coach or are afraid it may appear “weak.” But, as a mentor once said to me, “Jeff, it’s better to appear foolish than to be foolish.”

To learn more go to www.halftime.org/halftime-coaching/ .

 Pam's Story

 In a recent email, I read about a woman named Pam, who knows the pain of considering abortion. More than 24 years ago, she and her husband Bob were serving as missionaries to the ...]]> I received an email from a longtime YPO friend.  The subject line read cryptically, "Interesting Story."  Here is what it said:

 Pam's Story

 In a recent email, I read about a woman named Pam, who knows the pain of considering abortion. More than 24 years ago, she and her husband Bob were serving as missionaries to the Philippines and praying for a fifth child. Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in contaminated food or drink. She went into a coma and was treated with strong antibiotics before they discovered she was pregnant.

 Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own safety and told her that the medicines had caused irreversible damage to her baby. She refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted. Pam said the doctors didn't think of it as a life, they thought of it as a mass of fetal tissue.

 While pregnant, Pam nearly lost their baby four times but refused to consider abortion. She recalled making a pledge to God with her husband: If you will give us a son, we'll name him Timothy and we'll make him a preacher.

 Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy August 14, 1987. Pam's youngest son is indeed a preacher. He preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits, and serves with his father's ministry in the Philippines. He also plays football. Pam's son is Tim Tebow.

 The University of Florida's star quarterback became the first sophomore in history to win college football's highest award, the Heisman Trophy. His current role as quarterback of the Denver Broncos has provided an incredible platform for Christian witness. As a result, he is being called The Mile-High Messiah.

 This story originated from a longtime Lutheran friend, Dr. Gerald B. (Jerry) Kieschnick.