CBMC Summer 2021 Connector

CONNECTOR THE

SUMMER NEWSLETTER

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS MEN’S CONNECTION

IN THIS ISSUE:

SUMMER 2021

• LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT • BUILDING A BRIDGE WITH OPERATION TIMOTHY • AN IMPORTANT DOCTOR’S PRESCRIPTION

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FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT Hello friends, I hope your summer is off to a great start. It has been one year since God called me to this wonderful ministry of CBMC. Every day, I am humbled and grateful that I get to be part of transforming men’s lives.

There are two Scripture passages that I want to share with you today. Both speak to me regarding the journey every man is on and how CBMC plays a key role.

“The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” Psalms 118:14 “And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’” Mark 1:17 So, I have two questions for you. Who is God becoming in your life? And what kind of man are you becoming?

I hope that He is becoming more and more your Savior and Lord of your life every day. When Jesus says that he will make us fishers of men, he calls us to become more than men who sit on the sidelines. He is saying that it is time to become who HE has called us to be.

God is moving right now in the workplace among business and professional men to raise up those who would become men of purpose. There is a movement of the Spirit happening, calling men to become men of action.

This is about men who are asking the hard questions of each other. This is about men who are pouring into one another. Are you doing that?

God is calling men to lead through challenges, steady and

constant, for the sake of families, employees, and communities.

And hear me, men. This is not about perfection, but progress. It’s about taking one small step every day toward becoming the man you were destined to be. Some days will seem like a step in the wrong direction. Trust me, I know. When that happens, read Psalms 118:14 and then read it again.

Let me encourage us today to BECOME. Step into that: whatever God has for you.

I can’t wait to see what we become as we trust him more and follow His lead.

Serving with you,

2021 BOARD MEMBERS Dirk Block (Chairman) Roger Emerson Jeff Goldfarb Steve Goss (Secretary) Don Hargadon (Treasurer) Todd Hopkins Dave Melin

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David Meyers Scott Newcomer* Todd Schimmelpfennig (Co-Vice Chairman) David Sparks (Co-Vice Chairman) Mike Winter* *Staff Advisory Member

David Meyers President, CBMC USA P.S. We are working hard to spread this message of BECOMING to business and professional men across the nation. Prayerfully consider a gift today to further our mission and bring truth to the workplace. Every gift is DOUBLED! Thank you for considering a partnership with CBMC.

USING OPERATION TIMOTHY

TO BUILD A RELATIONSHIP BRIDGE, TEMPORAL AND ETERNAL

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or many years, CBMC’s Operation Timothy has served as a resource for spiritual growth, a means for growing closer to our Heavenly Father. For Randy Lindros, it has been that and much more: a priceless and timely means for establishing an unforgettable relationship with his earthly father as well.

When Randy lost both his father and mother, Carl and Joanne Lindros, in the crash of a privately owned airplane on Aug. 9, 2019, the loss was devastating. But Randy could cling to the joy he had experienced over the previous 2½ years while taking his dad through the online version of the unique discipling tool.

Randy had been introduced to Operation Timothy in 2013, after being invited to a CBMC meeting by a friend.

Being a senior relationship manager for a community bank in Orange County, Calif., he had initially thought, “Yeah, those are the kind of people I need to bring into the bank.” Before long, however, he realized CBMC wasn’t about developing business contacts.

One morning Mark Bundy, a local businessman also serving as Chairman of CBMC’s National Board of Directors at the time, told Randy about Operation Timothy. Soon they started going through OT together, opening spiritual horizons beyond anything he had expected.

“I’d been a believer for about 35 years, but had never been discipled,” Randy admitted, “even though I had worked as a missionary in Kyrgyzstan and several other countries, teaching principles of microfinance. Up to that point I wouldn’t open up to any other men, partly because my failure to get close to my father. But I started to pay attention to Mark’s life, and his father, Ron, and learned how to form a deep, authentic connection with another man. That launched me into my first man-toman, trusting relationship. It changed my life.”

He continued meeting with Bundy for about three years, “then he handed me off to one of my pastors, Dr. Michael Risley, to finish. I remain close friends with both of them to this day.”

Randy with his father, Carl

Just before Christmas in December 2016, after years of “hitting a brick wall” in attempting to share his faith with his father, Randy decided to take a different approach.

He had learned about a couple in his church whose parents also had resisted the Gospel message until they took them through Operation Timothy; in the process, both received Jesus Christ. So he decided to try that as well.

Drawing from the skills he regularly used at the bank, Randy “put together my best sales pitch” to invite his father to join him in going through OT. “I knew my dad loved to learn. He was always reading periodicals, doing everything he could to challenge his mind. So I approached him about Operation Timothy, putting great emphasis on its learning benefits.

“I told him I had learned so much from Mark Bundy. My dad was so impressed a highly successful businessman and chairman of a national organization had taken the time to meet with me regularly. I explained how we had learned together, and it had made a tremendous difference in my life. ‘We could learn a lot together, too, Dad,’ I said. continued 3

“Then I asked him, ‘How’d you like to learn with me by going through Operation Timothy?’ When he replied, ‘Yes, I’ll go through it with you. Let’s do it!’ I was flabbergasted and overjoyed.”

Since Randy lived in Newport Beach, Calif. and his father and mother were more than a two-hour drive away in Santa Barbara, they elected to use “eOT,” the electronic version. “Even though he was 80 years old, he was able to figure out how to use it – he actually preferred it to the paper version that I had used with Mark.”

They started going through OT almost immediately and their discipling relationship Randy’s Daughter, Abby, with his par- continued until Carl’s death, even ents, Carl and Joanne Lindros though it was a bit unusual with the son serving as the “Paul” and the father being the “Timothy.”

Having a stoic Finnish background, Carl was “a driven business guy, even into his 80s,” Randy said. “He left the relational stuff to my mom. He never bought us birthday presents personally, and rarely attended our sporting events – he had been kind of a dad in absentia as he pursued his many business interests and their philanthropic work in the community.

“As we went through Operation Timothy – the same time each week, every Thursday morning at 7:30 – he began to soften, becoming a different person, a changed man.

He lost his hard-guy approach and was able to live a life of repentance in his last years, rebuilding relationships with everyone in our extended family.

“I’ll never forget seeing Dad in his office at their cavernous home after he had accepted Christ, standing in front of his computer monitor. Reviewing the section that asks about making a commitment to the Lord, he said, ‘That’s me. We just walked through what it means to be a follower of Christ. And I’ve just done that.’ We also had a fantastic time in the section about the Holy Spirit.

“We never quite finished eOT because Dad wanted to read through the Bible directly. He initially only wanted to read the New Testament, but God changed his heart as we launched into Matthew, which has so many references to the Old Testament. He had begun to see the relevance of the Old Testaments, seeing prophecies fulfilled. We continued to have the times of our lives. If I didn’t have a solid answer for his questions, he ask, ‘Call one of your mentors and tell me what they had to say.’

“My mom told me that after we finished our weekly meetings, Dad would tell her what a great time he was having – that it was his favorite time of the week. He had emphasized that over and over.”

Carl had been flying nearly his entire life, earning a pilot’s license at the age of 13, before he was old enough for a driver’s license. At the time of the crash, he was flying a Lancair IV single-engine aircraft he’d had for about 25 years.

“It’s the fastest single-engine airplane you can fly,” Randy said. “It took a very proficient pilot to take off and land, and that was my dad. He flew all the time – he had built his commercial mortgage business around the plane.”

Carl and Jo were flying to Sacramento, Calif. after vacationing in Flat Head Lake, Mont. when the plane crashed into a mountain near Kooskia, Idaho. A massive thunderstorm in the area may have been a contributing factor, even though Carl was a very cautious pilot and the plane was equipped with the latest electronic equipment. Randy suspects something might have happened to his father, rendering him incapable of controlling the aircraft.

He said having to go to the crash site and identifying his parents’ remains by their wedding rings “put me into a year-long trauma. But on day 366 after the crash, the gnawing, dark sadness I had experienced shifted to gratitude and thankfulness. I began thinking about the joy, laughter and delight Dad and I shared over those 2½ years, realizing how well God had planned this time for us.

“I still miss them terribly – they were an anchor for my life. Now I’m finding that Christ is the real anchor for my life. I’ll be forever indebted to CBMC and Operation Timothy for helping to restore my relationship with my father.”

HAVE A STORY TO SHARE? WE’D LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT WHAT GOD IS DOING IN YOUR AREA. EMAIL HMCAFEE@CBMC.COM.

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HERMAN REECE – THE DOCTOR WHO PRESCRIBES A GOOD DOSE OF SCRIPTURE

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hat were you doing when you were 11 years old?

When he was 11, Herman Reece was concerned with being clean and pure in God’s eyes. By the time he was fifteen, he had set his sights on never doing anything that would be viewed as an affront to his Savior. “You see, I knew I wouldn’t fail if God had a hold of me,” Herman recalled.

“Hello, this is CBMC and Oral Surgery office, may I help you?” If that doesn’t stop you in your tracks, nothing will.

But that’s what Dr. Herman Reece instructed his staff to say when patients called his dental practice back in the day. In the 1970’s Dr. Reece was one of Oklahoma City’s premier oral surgeons. He was also CBMC’s Metro Chairman. Sharing Christ and pulling teeth were his passions, and yes, in that order. “I’ve been a very vocal Christ-follower as long as I can remember,” smiles the good doctor.

“Dentistry was just a way for me to share the abundant life in Christ

Herman Reece

with lots more people.”

Herman sold his practice in 1985 for the whopping price of $100 so that he could spend 100% of his time sharing Christ. He loves pointing people to 2 Corinthians 5 and can practically quote the entire chapter.

Verse 6: “for we walk by faith not by sight…” verse 17: “therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has passed away; behold, the new has come… and verse 20… we implore

Sharing Christ and pulling teeth were his passions, and yes, in that order.

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you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” Herman is still memorizing scripture and keeps copious notes but cautions, “don’t waste your time memorizing God’s word unless you have a review system,” and his formula for effective review was simply this:

1. Write down the verses to want to commit to memory

2. Reread them over and over again and just when you think you have them, do it again!

Herman with Steve Trice and David Meyers

His favorite passage to share with new believers has always been Psalm 119:1-12, but he asked that we not reveal the verses here. Instead, Herman reasons “make your readers find out for themselves what they say. That way, they’ll learn ‘em.”

Sounds reasonable to me.

His love for scripture and the ministry of CBMC are profound, and it was that combination that led him to the office of a stranger named Steve Trice back in 1991. They shook hands, and then Herman wasted little time in challenging Steve to know your scripture verses. From that point on, it was up to his new-

found friend to do his own business with the Lord. Trice took that baton and ran with it. Today, Steve has discipled countless men, spending thousands of hours making sure men are anchored in Jesus Christ.

Trice says, “I have high praise for Herman Reece because Jesus sent him my way at precisely the time when I needed him most.” Herman reflects that he had no earthly idea their meeting would be the genesis of a wonderful 30-year friendship.

“I knew I had something that Steve needed, but I had to find a way to get it to him,” recalls Herman.

Meyers presented Herman Reece with a Certificate of Appreciation Award and choking back a few tears, 91-year-old Herman Reece quietly said, “I feel a humble sense of joy just knowing people care; that maybe, just maybe, what I’ve done here has found favor with my Savior.”

Last fall, CBMC president David

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CHRISTIAN BUSINESS MEN’S CONNECTION THE CONNECTOR SUMMER 2021 P.O. BOX 8009 CHATTANOOGA, TN 37414-0009 800.566.CBMC (2262) WWW.CBMC.COM

CBMC’S TWOFOLD MISSION: TO PRESENT JESUS CHRIST AS SAVIOR AND LORD TO BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL MEN, AND TO DEVELOP CHRISTIAN BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL MEN TO CARRY OUT THE GREAT COMMISSION.

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2021 UPCOMING CBMC EVENTS CHECK CBMC.COM/EVENTS FOR REGISTRATION DETAILS

20th Annual Lincoln CBMC Golf Classic July 26th at 10:00 AM Lincoln, Nebraska Leadercast Omaha 2021 August 11th at 8:00 AM Omaha, Nebraska Men United August 14th at 7:30 AM Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Leadership Coach Training August 19th at 9:00 AM Online Event (Overland Park, KS) 5th Annual CBMC NE Ohio Golf Classic August 23rd at 10:30 AM Silver Lake, Ohio

CBMC Couple’s Night Out August 26th at 6:30 PM Oklahoma City, Oklahoma CBMC Coaching Encouragement Zoom Meeting September 11th at 8:00 AM Online Event Men United September 11th at 7:30 AM Oklahoma City, Oklahoma CBMC Lincoln Leadership Coach Training September 20th at 9:00 AM Lincoln, Nebraska

Tampa Bay Leadership Prayer Breakfast September 28th at 6:30 AM Tampa, FL Men’s Fall Retreat October 8th at 5:00 PM Arcadia, Missouri Men United October 9th at 7:30 AM Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 30th Annual Elkhart Community Leader’s Prayer Breakfast October 21st at 7:15 AM Elkhart, Indiana