OPINION:
My first business venture was when I was nine years old. I started a worm farm. Dad had an old wooden boat he had built that wouldn’t float anymore. Deciding that would be the perfect place to hold my worms, I put it on two sawhorses up off the ground. Dad told me he thought that cow manure would be great to mix in with the dirt. About a mile up the road we lived on, there was a pasture with cattle. One wheelbarrow at a time, I went the mile there, shoveled in the poop, and pushed that heavy, stinky thing back until I had finished my first real moneymaker.
The next step in my business was acquiring the worms. This part was actually super fun. To this day, I pride myself on being able to find good earthworms. To gently pull back fallen dead leaves, looking for the right type of worm dirt that they leave behind. When they’re uncovered, some take off and can crawl surprisingly fast.
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I was constantly carrying around an old can for those times when the worms were really close to the surface. The perfect time is after a good rain. When the ground gets dry, they go deeper into the dirt, which, of course, makes them harder to find. But too much water is not good. It’s also not good for them when the ground is cold. That happens to match up with when the fish are biting. Well, ain’t that convenient for a worm business, huh?
On Saturday mornings I would sit in a chair by our boat dock with a sign that read, “Willie’s Worms — 5 cents a piece.” Granny owned the dock, and she put an old mailbox beside it with “1 dollar” painted on the side so people could pay when they pulled up. When I was young, I always thought she had the big business because she didn’t have to sit outside in a chair all morning. People would just put their dollar bills in the mailbox to use her dock. Alongside Granny, “Willie’s Worms” made decent money; not a bad gig for a fourth grader.
In the kingdom of God, we all bring a unique set of skills to the table. Whether or not it’s sales, the same things that make us good at our jobs or what we love to do can be used for an eternal purpose that is far more fulfilling and satisfying than just making money. We often do things at work because we have to, but we do things for God because we want to, because we need to. Like Jesus told Peter, “Now, we fish for people.” He took what Peter did at work and applied it to a higher purpose.
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I have found over the years that Gospelers are all different types of people. Some have been successful in business or other areas and some have not been successful at all. There are wealthy people and folks who have very little who share their faith all the same. Some never stepped into a church until halfway through their lives, while others grew up going to church every week. But all of them are determined to help others find a new meaning and purpose.
While I am staying in the lane of winning souls in this book, I also know there are many other ways Christians can use their talents for God. Some examples are disciplers, nursery workers, serving teams, counselors, prayer warriors, community helpers, doctors, nurses, pilots, and technical teams. The list goes on and on. The church is made up of so many people, all with numerous skills that are useful. But I do believe the calling is on everyone to spread the Gospel to others. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”
I’m not shy about sharing Jesus with anyone because I feel like I have the greatest gift in the world to offer people. Whatever your skills, talents, and history might be, that unique mix can be used in spreading the word about Jesus too.
The word retail actually means “to sell in small quantities directly to the ultimate consumer.” The Gospel is best delivered one personal conversation at a time (small quantities) to those in need of salvation (the ultimate consumer), knowing that God does the work and drives the message home. We just need to be obedient to have the conversation. These stories we’ve walked through, like Philip and the eunuch, should inspire us today to step up and speak up in our own conversations with all those we talk to, for those who need their darkness to turn to light.
As we read on in the Bible, we never hear anything about the other five of the Seven. Yet we have to assume the first two, Stephen and Philip, were not the exceptions and that the others were just as influential in the life of the early church and spread of the Gospel. Right off the bat, we know Stephen died for what he believed, becoming a martyr. Later, we catch back up with Philip in Acts 21:8, where Paul talked about meeting him: “Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven.”
Notice it states, “Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven.” This was a group of evangelists — Gospelers! It’s crazy to think that Paul, at that time known as Saul, had been an ally of the religious leaders and cheering on the death of Stephen. His amazing transformation took place during the absolute strangest conversation in the book of Acts, and your story might be next.
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Excerpt taken from “Gospeler: Turning Darkness into Light One Conversation at a Time.”
Willie Robertson is the CEO of Duck Commander and Buck Commander and star of A&E’s ”Duck Dynasty.” He is a New York Times best-selling author of “The Duck Commander Family: How Faith, family and Ducks Built a Dynasty,” “American Hunter, American Fisherman, and American Entrepreneur.” Robertson’s story is a remarkable example of entrepreneurship and dedication built on hard work, faith, and family.
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