Influent Podcast

July 5, 2005: Award-winning accounting professor Dr. Marsha Huber of Youngstown State University arrives at a Joseph International event with a lot of professional accomplishments, degrees and emotional burdens.

Although she owned a CPA business and had a portfolio of real estate investments along with her position at the University, she was disappointed in her spiritual and business life. Marsha was overwhelmed with commitments, persecuted at work and felt second class spiritually because she worked in the marketplace. She felt stuck.

Walking into what she thought was a work networking event, she heard Bob Fraser speak about inviting Jesus into the marketplace and having vision for your work. By the time she left, she believed that God had purpose for her where she worked and was determined to change her life.

Today’s podcast tracks alongside her incredible transformation through buying time. This is the idea of making space to spend your time on more fruitful activities in your life which allowed Marsha to invest in places where God called her to instead of spreading herself thin.

Now Marsha has peace and is experiencing even more professional successful than ever before! She is a visiting scholar at Harvard University, has won several awards for her research, and has not only met many influential people but has become one herself. All because she believed that Jesus cared about what she was doing with her work and brought Him into the process!

Hear more of Marsha’s story and learn how to buy time on today’s podcast! You don’t want to miss this!

Last week’s podcast, A Jesus Lifestyle, Part One, Bob Fraser spoke with Erik Fish about the process that led Erik and his family to leave their official role at the church to adventure into a more relational and widely relatable approach to creating Jesus followers anywhere, anytime.

In this week's podcast, Erik explains how we can practically and powerfully share our faith in our day-to-day life, whether in the office or at a bar. Noting that by shifting things as basic as using less “Christian” lingo to communicate the love of God with the people, we can create more authentic, inclusive, Jesus centered culture wherever we go. This podcast will leave you inspired and equipped to see a move of God in your life and the lives of those around you!

To hear how a simple church group can spring up in a downtown Manhattan bar or right in your office, click below!

After hearing The Starbucks Prophet podcast series, Erik Fish emailed Bob Fraser a question. Seven years prior, while ordering coffee at Starbucks, a barista prophesied over Erik and his wife, confirming a transition that would change their lives. Could this have been the same Starbucks prophet? As it turns out, it was!

In this first episode of the podcast series A Jesus Lifestyle, we find Erik at the peak of his ministry. From the outside he seemed successful, his church was growing and his family was healthy, but inside he felt he wasn't living a Jesus centered life.

Out of desperation Erik prayed a dangerous prayer, "Lord, I want to be on the very edge of what you're doing...or I want to quit ministry."

Fast-forward a couple of months and Erik finds himself in the midst of a Jesus movement at one of the largest Native American Universities in America. All of which he accredits to one thing: A Jesus Lifestyle.

Find out more about living a Jesus lifestyle by listening below and tune in next week to hear how you too can see a move of God in your day-to-day life:

This week Bob Fraser is joined by Michael Stephens (aka: The Starbucks prophet- listen here and here) and Jim Maffuccio to engage in a hopeful discussion about the parable of the wheat and tares and the effect that has on Jesus followers interacting with their day-to-day environment.

To start, Michael shares a conviction he felt from the Holy Spirit, "You need to be tare aware but wheat focused", speaking of the parable in Matthew 13.

Meaning we should be aware that there are undeniably rotten and evil things in the world, but be focused on the Kingdom of God on earth. There is God-sown hope that followers of Jesus are called to bring into the world. Of course, this requires us to be in the midst of the world around us- in the business world, the coffee shops, the banks- sharing the hope of Jesus and doing our work well.

This poses the question: If you were not focused the negative, would you live your life differently? And would that life look similar to the way Jesus taught us to live? If so, this podcast is sure to light a fire in you to live your life with zeal and to shift your focus to the wheat while being tare aware.

Joan Dellbruegge grew up in Malaysia, a primarily Muslim nation, where it is illegal to talk about the gospel with any Muslim. Though she was raised in a Buddhist family, Joan attended a Christian school because it was one of the best schools in Malaysia. The political leaders of the country would often send their children to attend this school and other Christian schools because of the high academic standards. In these schools, the Christian teachers would teach about the Bible. For Joan's class, out of 47 students, 45 attended classes on Bible Knowledge. The seeds of the gospel were planted, and years later Joan became a Christian while in Germany. When looking over her classmates now, around 30 out of those 47 are now Christians.

Pastor Klaus-Dieter Passon, senior pastor of the Jesus House, a small church in Dusseldorf, Germany, shares an up-close and personal look into some stories of the refugee crisis in Europe.

Pastor Passon calls what's happening with his church 'reverse mission.' --God brings people to them from Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and many other countries, so their church can minister to and love on these refugees, many of whom continue on or return to their own kinsmen completely transformed. Refugees have experienced trauma, they have lost their homes and their lives have often been destroyed. It is in this place of brokenness and desperation, than the simple love of their German brothers powerfully opens hearts to hear the gospel and receive Jesus.

In this podcast episode, Bob Fraser chats with Michael Stephens and Jim Maffuccio, two Jesus-loving, marketplace men of deep thought and wisdom. We get to be a fly on the wall for their conversation as they dissect themes in current Christian society, and across economic, scientific, and social trends.

"Let's say you have a crusade and a thousand people raise their hands to give their lives to Jesus, but then they go home and beat their wives --has the Kingdom of God come? But if you have the same crusade and no one raises their hand, but they go home and STOP beating their wives, has the Kingdom of God come? The Kingdom of God comes when the power of God comes, yes, but it also comes when the WAYS of God come. When people adopt God's ways --when they give up greed and adopt generosity, when they give up selfishness and adopt love, when they give up lying and adopt integrity --that only comes from salt and light, from God's ways."

In part 2 to the "Starbucks Prophet" podcast, we track Michael Stephens' journey through jobs at AT&T, an oil rig, and high end clothier Nordstrom's. Through these experiences, Michael learned that showing up, working hard, and giving God glory opens incredible doors for favor in the workplace. "When the Holy Spirit meets work ethic, you always win."

Affectionately nicknamed the 'Starbucks Prophet,' Michael Stephens is a Jesus-loving man who has cultivated a practice of listening to the Lord and bringing him into the workplace. His story starts in Starbucks where, fresh out of ministry school, he was determined to turn his work into his ministry and pray and prophesy over customers while on the job. After the first encounter with a customer where he shared God's heart with two ladies, he caught a vision --what if people came to Starbucks to hear the Lord?

In this part of the story, we hear from Bernie Zarda, the tender-hearted investor that made opening this jail possible. As a businessman, Bernie wanted to find an investment that was sound from a business perspective and would make money, but that also had a Kingdom purpose. What he wasn't prepared for, was the ministry side. In a jail, you intercept people at a crossroads in their life --potentially heading down a bad path, but not yet sentenced to long-term time in prison. Being able to love these men and women where they were at for however long they were at ICC, brought the Lord's love and made lasting change. Many inmates didn't want to leave the jail.