Marketplace Miracles: Extraordinary Stories of Marketplace Turnarounds Transforming Businesses, Schools and Communities

By Rick Heeren and Ed Silvoso

When the New York Times wrote a front-page account of Elk River, Minnesota's faith-filled transformation, Rick Heeren was the city's leader behind the scenes. Here, he shares his story and many other motivating how-to accounts of businesses, schools, and communities that have put God at the center of their vision and seen miraculous turnarounds. See how one company in Minnesota planted 600 churches in the Ukraine. Discover how a real estate developer turned a foreclosed mall into a focal point that would change a city. Learn how one woman's self-published book blossomed into a movie, and how a pastor's idea for a motion picture camera led to $200 million to make his first major film. Heeren also shares practical ideas for readers who catch his enthusiasm and passion for bringing about transformation in their own communities. After reading Heeren's book, you'll see why with God, nothing is impossible!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 3, 2008
• ISBN: 9781441225238

Rick Heeren

Rick Heeren is a leader in marketplace ministry and transformation. He is one of this generation's pioneers in the concept of bringing prayer and intercession into businesses. With 25 years of experience as a business executive, he is a popular speaker and teacher. He coaches leaders in marketplace transformation across the country and internationally. Heeren is the author of two previous books, The Elk River Story and Thank God It's Monday. Rick and his wife, Rachel, live in Bloomington, Minnesota.

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PRAISE FOR

MARKETPLACE MIRACLES

I firmly believe that this book could inspire members of the Body of Christ to reach that level of excellence that would please our Father’s heart, as we are inspired by the examples of men and women who believe God for miracles. It will bring a revolution of faith and works that demonstrate the power and presence of God in the marketplace and in the Church worldwide.

Barbara Chan

Marketplace leader, Hong Kong, China

Rick Heeren has captured the heart of transforming a nation. He is not simply a theoretician, but also a practitioner. Be prepared to have your heart and life changed through this book—you will never be the same after reading it. You will become a radical transformer that implements real change in your life, city and nation.

Cindy Jacobs

Cofounder and President, Generals International

Red Oak, Texas, USA

The answer to Rick Heeren’s constant prayer that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven is masterfully revealed in the pages of Marketplace Miracles. The stories here are what keep Rick in a wonderful state of infectious excitement, and they prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that God is abundantly able to do more than anything we can hope or imagine.

Stephanie Klinzing

Mayor, Elk River, Minnesota, USA

We all need inspiration to think outside the box. Marketplace Miracles provides real life examples of men and women who have decided to believe that the Word of God is applicable to their work lives today—even when it comes to miracles! A must-read for every workplace believer who wants to go to another level.

Os Hillman

Author, The 9 to 5 Window

President, Marketplace Leaders and the International Coalition

of Workplace Ministries

Cumming, Georgia, USA

The Church as we know it is moving very rapidly into a Kingdom expression. Marketplace Miracles by Rick Heeren is one of the best examples of the shift that has occurred over the last two decades. This book also serves as a model of how the Church will be seen vibrantly in societal structures rather than within the four walls where it has been contained in the past. This is an excellent read that will open you up for new vision.

Chuck D. Pierce

President, Glory of Zion International Ministries

Denton, Texas, USA

For as long as I have known Rick, he has shown a passion for the extraordinary. In Marketplace Miracles, Rick sets up clear road signs and guideposts for those who seek to follow the highway being forged by contemporary pioneers who have learned to position themselves as gatekeepers to usher in the extraordinary moves of God.

Graham Power

Chairman, Power Group of Companies

Transformation Africa and Global Day of Prayer

Cape Town, South Africa

My friend Rick Heeren walks in a high level of faith and trust in God. I believe that our Father in heaven is calling for all of us to walk in a higher level of faith and trust in Him. This book will encourage you to reach those levels. You are about to read stories that will introduce you to ordinary people who have an extraordinary God!

Chuck Ripka

President and CEO, Rivers International, Ripka Enterprises and Rivercenter

International Network of Christians

Elk River, Minnesota, USA

Christian leaders in the marketplace who align their thinking with God’s thinking are transforming their businesses, schools, communities and nations. Rick Heeren’s book shows us actual examples from around the world of miraculous transformations brought about by ordinary Christian leaders who dared to believe and obey God’s direction in their spheres of influence.

Dutch Sheets

Dutch Sheets Ministries

Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

This book may be the final tremor unleashing the spiritual tsunami that will sweep the world and revolutionize the way we do business. Business as usual will no longer hold true when we let God be God over our businesses.

Tim Tay

Business owner and CEO, Trinix Computers P/L

Perth, Australia

In this book, Rick Heeren has released what is contained in his life: faith in the God who turns the impossible into possible and the ordinary to the extraordinary. As you will see, he’s still on the journey, and it’s not too late for you to join him!

Dave Thompson

Senior Vice President, Harvest Evangelism, Inc.

San Jose, California, USA

Few Christian leaders would doubt that God’s mandate for His people today is to take dominion over every segment of society. Can this be done? Rick Heeren, one of God’s chosen workplace apostles, says yes! This one-of-a-kind book is not theory—it floods us with exciting news from around the world that the social transformation we have been praying for is actually happening!

C. Peter Wagner

Presiding Apostle, International Coalition of Apostles

Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably means that God has been at work. It’s the only conclusion you can draw when you read of the miracles in this extraordinary book from a wonderful man of God.

Ross Whitehill

COO, Thomas Murray, Ltd.

London, England

© 2008 Rick Heeren

Published by Revell

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.revellbooks.com

Revell edition published 2014

ISBN 978-1-4412-2523-8

Previously published by Regal Books

Ebook edition originally created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Other versions used are:

NIV—Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

RSV—From the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, and 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission.

TLB—Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible, copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my nephew Justin Herbst and his family. Justin was born with cerebral palsy (CP). Even though he is a relative and I have been aware of his disability, it wasn’t until I interviewed his mother for a chapter in this book that I really understood the extraordinary miracles that have taken place in their family.

First, I dedicate this book to Justin, who has made up his mind to live a victorious life. I attended his high school graduation party and watched him wheel his wheelchair out onto the patio where all his guests were gathered. Without notes, he addressed every person in the audience and told each one, in a very personal way, how his or her life had encouraged him. I had tears in my eyes as I realized how much about each person’s contribution Justin had stored in his memory. Near the end of his talk, he said the following: I have embraced my disability. My disability has helped me to understand the world in a bigger way. I have begun to understand that it is so difficult to achieve what you want. You could give up. But you just have to keep going. You have got to keep striving.

Second, I dedicate this book to his sister, Kacie, and his brother, Clay, who have lived in a home where their disabled brother received an enormous amount of attention. In the backyard speech, Justin told his sister and his brother how much he respects them.

Third, I dedicate this book to Justin’s mother, Patti, and his father, Chuck, who have not only learned how to contribute to their son’s success, but have also helped other children with CP through the Center for Independence, which they founded. I now understand why Patti was named one of the top eight citizens in Chicago.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Foreword

By Ed Silvoso

Preface

God Is About to Start a Revolution

Chapter 1

The Revelation of God’s Definition

Chapter 2

God: The Source of Our Provision

Chapter 3

Staying True to the Vision

Chapter 4

Fulfilling the Dream

Chapter 5

Kingdom Rocker

Chapter 6

Reclaiming America

Chapter 7

God Provides

Chapter 8

A Tall Order: Bringing Peace to Uganda

Chapter 9

InfoCare: The King’s Company

Chapter 10

God’s Business Plan

Chapter 11

Shopping for Miracles

Chapter 12

Creativity—Holy Spirit-Style

Chapter 13

The Lord’s Salesman

Chapter 14

Leap of Faith

Chapter 15

Investing in the Lord’s Work

Chapter 16

Doing Business for the Master

Chapter 17

Finding Christ in Prison

Chapter 18

A Personal Calling

Chapter 19

Using Faith as Capital

Chapter 20

Releasing the Joseph Generation

Chapter 21

Making a Difference

Chapter 22

Citywide Transformation

Chapter 23

For God’s Glory

Afterword

Transformation Churches

By Rev. Dr. Gregory M. Pagh

Appendix A

Kingdom Companies

Appendix B

Kingdom Companies and the Environment

Appendix C

Marketplace Christians Featured in this Book

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Bill Greig III, who encouraged me on a bus in Hong Kong to consider having Regal Books publish this book, and thanks to Dr. Gary S. Greig, Bill’s brother, for being the champion for it as it moved from a concept to a reality within Regal. It is also an extraordinary miracle that Gary was available when I needed the assistance of an Old Testament scholar—he was formerly a professor of Old Testament Theology at Regent University. Thanks also to Jerry Gramckow, who edited the book and challenged me to push for a higher level of excellence within it. And, finally, thanks to all of the people who allowed me to tell their stories.

FOREWORD

Ed Silvoso

To see what you haven’t yet seen, you need to do what you haven’t yet done, because if you keep on doing what you have always done, you will continue to see what you have always seen.

In his book Marketplace Miracles, Rick Heeren shows with eloquent persuasiveness that miracles—those rare divine interventions into human affairs—shouldn’t be so rare. We should expect to see them regularly. And we should expect more than just run-of-the-mill miracles—we should witness extraordinary miracles in the marketplace, where the need is greatest.

In my book Anointed for Business, I define the marketplace as the combination of business, education and government. These are the three arteries through which the life of nations and cities flows daily. Like clogged arteries in a sick patient, the immense and complex problems prevalent in the marketplace today defy ordinary solutions. Miracles are needed, and miracles require God’s intervention.

But does God really care about what goes on in the workplace, holding office hours on days other than Sunday? Is He in on Mondays? Or on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, for that matter? Is He as interested in human affairs as we are told He is in eternal matters?

How trustworthy is 1 John 4:4: He who is in [us] is greater than he who is in the world—especially when we are way down on the scoreboard and time is running out?

Does He really care?

In this book, Rick Heeren answers these questions with a resounding yes. God cares so much that He is willing and eager to perform extraordinary miracles in the marketplace, and to do it again and again, as He did in Ephesus through Paul, who introduced the term extraordinary miracles in the Bible (see Acts 19:11, NIV).

This book will shift your paradigms in the most inspiring way. You will begin to believe what you never believed before, and as a result you will attempt things you never tried before. And when you do, you will begin to rely on God’s power to see what you haven’t yet seen.

Ed Silvoso

Author, Anointed for Business

PREFACE

GOD IS ABOUT TO START A REVOLUTION

I am part of a team at Harvest Evangelism that has been urging marketplace Christians (those who work in business, education or government) to be ministers when they go to work each day. Over the years, the feedback I have received from many successful marketplace Christians has been startling. Some successful Christians have told me that their experience with some marketplace Christians has been so negative (breaking covenants, expecting better-than-average financial arrangements, poor quality of work, and so on) that now they would rather do business with non-Christians.

As a result of their substandard work, some marketplace Christians have been forsaken and hated by the public. However, I believe that this drought of excellence is about to end. God is about to make marketplace Christians the very definition of excellence. He is about to distinguish marketplace Christians as people who perform at a level of excellence that abundantly exceeds their non-Christian marketplace peers. God is indeed raising the standard of excellence in the marketplace. God is calling marketplace Christians to work at their jobs with the highest level of integrity and the greatest quality they can achieve.

I believe the Lord is about to start a revolution in which marketplace Christians will stand out because of their relationship to the Lord. Marketplace Christians will be known not only for having a living relationship with the Lord and meeting people’s needs through prayer but also for the high quality of their work. As marketplace Christians commit to aligning their thinking with God’s thinking and to obeying Him in the way they perform at work, God will use them to transform their spheres of influence.

Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no one went through you,

I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations.

Isaiah 60:15

CHAPTER 1

THE REVELATION OF GOD’S DEFINITION

In November 2003, I attended the final banquet for that year’s Harvest Evangelism Institute in Mar del Plata, Argentina. I was sitting near the back of the dining hall when I heard Ed Silvoso, the founder and president of Harvest Evangelism, announce my name and ask me to come to the front of the room. When I got to the platform, Ed asked me to kneel and then spoke these words over me: Rick, the Lord is releasing a mantle of extraordinary miracles upon you.

I quickly told the Lord that I welcomed His new anointing, but that I really did not know what He meant by extraordinary miracles. When I got back to my room, I searched my Bible, and as I did so the Holy Spirit led me to Acts 19:11, which states, God did extraordinary miracles through Paul (NIV). Yet I still didn’t know what this phrase meant. I thought to myself, Aren’t all miracles extraordinary?

For two years I cried out to the Lord, asking Him to help me understand His perspective about extraordinary miracles. Then, in August 2005, as I was flying from Minneapolis to San Francisco to attend Harvest Evangelism’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebration, the Lord revealed to me that my next book would contain a chapter about Valley Christian Schools (VCS). I had first met Dr. Clifford Daugherty, the president of VCS, 10 years earlier, but I had not seen him for about 5 years. I knew, however, that VCS had turned around dramatically under Dr. Daugherty’s leadership.

At one of the first events at Harvest Evangelism’s anniversary celebration, amazingly, there was Dr. Daugherty. I rushed over and explained to him that the Lord had told me I would write a new book and that one of the chapters would be about his school. Clifford said he had just documented the turnaround of Valley Christian in a manuscript he hoped to publish. He had a copy of the manuscript with him and asked if I would like to read it. I had assumed I would have to follow Clifford around with a pad of paper, making notes for my book, but now I had his manuscript that contained all the details. This confirmed what the Lord had told me on the plane.

I studied Clifford’s manuscript intensely, which eventually became the foundation for chapter 3 in this book. But the Lord also used Clifford’s manuscript to help me understand the concept of extraordinary miracles.

A TRIP TO ARGENTINA

As I read Clifford’s manuscript, the Lord reminded me of an extraordinarily miraculous breakthrough I had experienced several years earlier. I used to pray once a week with Frank, a Native American pastor, who served a congregation on the north side of Minneapolis. One day after we had finished praying, I asked Frank if he and his wife would accompany me on a trip to Argentina. He talked it over with his wife, and they decided they would like to go. However, the cost of the trip was beyond their budget. I didn’t have the money either, but we agreed to cry out to God together for the resources for Frank and his wife to take this trip.

God pushed this prayer request to an even higher level by giving me the boldness to ask other ethnic pastors and their wives to make the trip with us. In addition to Frank and his wife, 28 others joined us in believing that God would make it possible for the entire group to make the trip to Argentina. At $3,000 each, the cost for 30 people to go to Argentina was $90,000. Believing the Lord for $90,000 stretched me far beyond what I had ever experienced before.

Frank and I began praying that the Lord would make it possible for all of these friends to go to Argentina. We prayed that prayer every week thereafter, listened to the Lord, did what He told us to do and trusted Him to provide what was needed. Then miracles began to happen. I suddenly started receiving financial commitments from marketplace Christians. Amazingly, people began pressing checks for $25,000 into my hands. Eventually, I had the $90,000 we needed to take 30 people to Argentina.

Most of these people did not have passports, so I began helping them get their paperwork together to submit applications. I don’t want to minimize this step, because many of these leaders had never had a passport before, and some were in the United States as temporary residents on green cards. The Lord challenged me to believe Him for even more miraculous breakthroughs in order to overcome these difficulties.

I had to book nonrefundable airline tickets for the entire group prior to their receiving their passports. During this process I discovered that Frank didn’t have a birth certificate. Despite this apparent problem, I booked airline tickets for him and his wife as an act of faith in and obedience to the Lord.

The Passport Problem

When I talked to my own pastor about the challenge of obtaining a passport for Frank, the Lord moved miraculously again and provided me with strategic contacts. My pastor suggested we enlist the services of one of our U.S. senators. We contacted the senator’s office, and his Minnesota staff began to assist us in exploring ways in which we could get a passport for Frank. After several weeks, the senator’s staff did not see any way they could help. No birth certificate, no passport! The situation seemed impossible.

On the day before the trip to Argentina, my pastor and I met in his office to pray that God would give us wisdom about how we could help get a passport for Frank. Surely God would make a way for Frank to make the trip to Argentina, since He had already provided the funds to send him.

I made one last call to the senator’s staff person in Minnesota. Then the Lord worked another miracle: Remarkably, the staff person had just discovered that Frank’s birth certificate was in a sealed legal file in Montana! I immediately contacted a Christian lawyer friend and told him what we had discovered. He sprang into action and contacted the agency in Montana that had jurisdiction over the file and asked them for the name and telephone number of a local lawyer who had excellent rapport with that agency. He then called that lawyer and hired him to get a court order to open the sealed legal file. Within an hour, the lawyer had the birth certificate and had hired an overnight messenger service to send it to the Seattle passport office. At the same time, I hired another messenger service to arrive at the Seattle passport office when that office opened the following day.

Perhaps the most amazing part of this miracle was that one messenger service delivered the birth certificate while a second messenger service stood and waited for the passport office to process the birth certificate and create the passport. Everything went as we had hoped. The passport office created the passport, and the second messenger service rushed it to the airport and put it on the next flight from Seattle to Miami.

The Lord continued to accomplish miraculously what had seemed impossible, given all the different—and essential—steps involved in the process. At the beginning of that same day, Frank and his wife boarded the airplane with their 28 teammates and flew from Minneapolis to Miami. We waited several hours at the Miami Airport, hoping to receive the passport from Seattle prior to the departure of the plane that would take us from Miami to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

We soon learned that the Seattle-to-Miami flight was a bit delayed and that it would arrive just after our flight to Argentina was scheduled to depart. Although this looked like another impossible situation, I decided that it was not a cause for discouragement. God had taken us this far, and He would see this through to completion. I told Frank and his wife about the delay and that they would have to stay overnight at the Miami Airport hotel. They would receive the passport and depart for Argentina the following day.

At this point, the Lord did something special to bless this couple. When their 28 teammates heard that Frank and his wife would have to stay overnight at the hotel, they took up an offering to pay for their hotel room. They raised enough money for the couple to have an extraordinary dinner in addition to covering the cost of the very expensive hotel room at the airport hotel.

Two days after I arrived in Argentina, I returned to