I
Had to get run over by a truck to make it happen!
For a long
time people had been saying to me that I should take my years of
management experience, couple it with the knowledge I gained as
the pastor of churches in New York and Florida, and start a teaching
ministry to instruct and encourage Christians concerning the challenges
to faith and ethics they face in the workplace daily ~ a real need!
It sounded
like a great idea to me. I did indeed have a great deal of experience
in business. As a young man, I had worked in New York City as
a consultant specializing in communications. My clients included
some of the largest and best known companies in
the world: General Electric, the Boeing Aircraft company, and
Cunnard Shipping Lines, among others. Later, I owned a number
of companies, including an advertising agency and a professional
consulting company. Once again, in addition to serving many small
companies, my staff and I had the opportunity to serve large corporations
such as Mercedes-Benz of North America, Mobil Oil, the New York
Medical College, and the northeastern based John Wannamaker chain
of fine stores. During those years, we also provided consulting
services to a Mid-Eastern government through one of our other
clients.
After a
life-changing experience with Jesus Christ, I left that behind
to study for and enter the ministry. While serving as the pastor
of congregations in a New York City suburb and later in Central
Florida, I conducted a teaching ministry on both secular and Christian
radio stations entitled, Yesterday, Today and Forever.
For some ten years that broadcast was heard in the U.S. and throughout
the Caribbean Basin.
While I
often thought about, and prayed concerning, the idea of a ministry
geared towards helping Christians find success in the marketplace,
not in spite of their adherence to Biblical principles,
but because of it, I still did not feel God's leading
in that direction.
In the
late 1980's, my wife Alice and I moved to Central America to do
missionary work in the bush. While there, I was run over by a
speeding truck one night when we stopped to help somebody alongside
the road. It was a terrible accident! The two fellows in the truck
that hit me were killed on the spot. Doctors in the stateside hospitals
where I was later transported for multiple operations stated that my
massive injuries should have taken my life. They continually declared
that, "It was a miracle!" I continually declared, "I
know!" After progressing from bedridden to wheelchair to
crutches to cane, we returned to Central America and lived there
for another year and a half. It was however, necessary for us
to leave the bush. Dragging a bum knee through the jungle with
a machete in one hand and a cane in the other just didn't work.
After moving
into the country's only large city, circumstances created a situation
where I was asked to do consulting work for their national government.
That provided an opportunity to share the Gospel with many of
the highest government leaders and some of the most prominent
business people there! When that work was finished, Alice and
I decided, with much prayer, that it was time for us to return
to the U.S.
The accident
had left us with very few resources. Our finances were depleted
from the expenses we incurred, and almost everything we owned
of any value had been stolen in Central America while I was in
the hospital in the U.S.! We moved to South Florida, and I started
a small consulting firm. We were told that the economy was terrible,
times were bad, and we were undercapitalized in an area where
we knew nobody and had no contacts. Undaunted, we set out to conduct
business in a way that would gain us clients, and make our clients
our friends; in a way that would please and glorify the Lord.
In less than a year, we were turning away business!
A very
important facet of our Christian fellowship during that time was
getting together with Randy and Ellen Drake, even thought they
lived two hundred and fifty miles from us. Randy had served as
an elder and the treasurer of the church that I had pastored in central Florida,
and I valued his insight, and his spiritual maturity. He and Ellen
were both successful in the business world and published authors
in the medical field. While together one weekend, we were discussing
how the book of Proverbs applied in every day business life. Everything
finally came together (including God's leading!) and the M.D.
Solomon Institute was born.
Now we
are conducting seminars and workshops that are changing lives.
We present an in-depth look at Biblically based leadership and
management techniques along with skills needed to deal with others
successfully in any relationship. The purpose of this seminar
is to assist the local Church to equip, strengthen and encourage
Christians to find real victory in their everyday life.
Read "The Master's Call" — the story and testimony of this accident
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