Today we’d like to introduce you to Os Hillman.
Os Hillman is an internationally recognized speaker, author, and consultant on the subject of faith at work.
He is the Founder and President of Marketplace Leaders Ministries, an organization whose purpose is to train men and women to fulfill their calling in and through their work life and to view their work as ministry.
Os formerly owned and operated an ad agency in Atlanta for 12 years. Hillman has written 24 books on faith and work-related subjects and a daily workplace email devotional entitled TGIF – Today God Is First that is read by hundreds of thousands of people daily in 105 countries. He has been featured on CNBC, NBC, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Associated Press, Newsmax, and many other national media as a spokesperson on faith at work. Os has spoken in 26 countries.
Os attended the University of South Carolina and Calvary Chapel Bible School, a ministry of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, California. Os is married to Pamela, and they live in north Atlanta. He serves on the boards LifeChangers Legacy, Convene, and Commissioned.
Os Hillman Personal Story
Excerpt from God is My Success, by Larry Julian, Warner Faith, October 2005
Financial slavery is like a dog chasing its tail: You spend all your energy running in circles. Our desire to achieve financial success sets in motion a tremendous motivation and oftentimes a blind ambition toward a monetary goal. We expend an inordinate amount of time and energy doing whatever it takes to achieve our financial goals. We work hard. We sacrifice our lives, even at the expense of our mental and physical health. We live with the anxiety that the “wolf is at the door”—that we’re just one-quarter away from financial disaster. We’re constantly looking over our shoulders, running from the insatiable bottom-line God who’s about to devour us. We chase money by striving to achieve our financial goals and then find money is chasing us because we are worried about the consequences of not making our financial goals.
Whether you’re chasing money or being chased, the trap is the same—it’s never enough. The real tragedy lies in the deception of the pursuit. We forfeit our present life for what we believe will be a better life tomorrow.
Os Hillman has been there. He understands the tremendous subtlety of financial slavery. His story proves that even the most talented and well-intentioned Christian can fall prey to this subtle master.
Os Hillman could have been the cover model for Perfect Christian Businessman Magazine. For more than fourteen years, he built a successful Atlanta-based advertising agency serving high-profile clients like American Express and Steinway pianos. His mission was admirable: to reflect Christ in his workplace. Os did all the things that honor God. He shared his faith with others, and he gave more than ten percent to his church.
It was 1994, and Os had what appeared to be a good life. He had a beautiful home on a golf course, played golf three times a week, and had enough money to retire at age forty-four. Then, in a three-month span, his whole life came crashing down.
Os recalled, “One day, my wife of fourteen years announced she wanted to leave me. Within weeks, my investments on the East and West Coasts totaling $500,000 disintegrated. Then our largest client, who represented eighty percent of my business, fired us for no good reason. Shorter thereafter, my vice president left and took our second-largest account. I was devastated!
“I was so angry at God. I questioned the very reality of God. I remember arguing with God saying, ‘Hey, I’ve hung in here and tried to be a good husband. I’ve gone to counseling five different times to make our marriage work. I’ve done all I can do! And this is how you reward your faithful servant? I’ve been a good Christian. I’ve given money to you, supported the Christian cause, and led people to Christ. Why have you done this to me?’”
As bad as things were, they would get even worse. This three-month shockwave was just the opening act of a walk in the desert that would last seven years. Os recalled, “It was like having a boat with fifteen holes in it and three Band-aids. You’re scrambling around trying to figure out, ‘How do I plug this hole and then run over and plug that hole?’ I couldn’t punch my way out of a paper bag. I consider myself a highly skilled person, but everything I did turned to dirt. I felt like the world was against me.”
In 1997, after battling with all his strength to keep his company and save his marriage, Os was hit with a one-two punch that finally brought him to his knees. It marked the lowest point in his life.
“I had expended all my resources. I basically lost everything. I had about $1,000 left in the bank after having about $300,000. During this difficult period, my wife asked for a divorce. I continued to stand for our marriage. I never dated during this time; I prayed for reconciliation, and I prayed for my wife. One day during the divorce deposition, a woman shared a testimony about an activity that my wife had been into. Learning of that activity devastated me to the point where I fell to my knees. My attorney had to hold me because I was crying so profusely.
“I remember walking to the top of a hill we have in the back of our house. I spent the entire afternoon alone on this hill screaming at God, ‘Is this the way you honor faith and perseverance?’”
Everything was stripped away. During this time, all façades fell, and the truth was revealed. The Lord started to speak through a series of people who would enter Os’s life. Through others, God would reveal Os’s deeply ingrained issue about being in control.
Os recalled, “My mentor once said I was the best survivalist he’s ever known. Now, that wasn’t a compliment. He was saying, ‘It takes a lot to knock you off your horse, and you’ve finally fallen off a horse that you can’t get back up on and you can’t control.’ So when all these things happened, it was as though somebody had stripped all my clothes off and had me jump off a cliff because I had no control over anything. I couldn’t control my wife’s behavior. I couldn’t control the client who left me, and I couldn’t control the fraud that hurt my financial investments. All the things I had, I lost control over.”
This long period of pain and suffering was extremely difficult yet paradoxically life-transforming. Os recalled, “I cried a lot. I was very depressed and discouraged because I hadn’t seen any breakthroughs or turnarounds in my life. However, at the same time I was pressing into the Lord. I knew that I was going to either be a victim or a victor in this situation, and I knew the only way was to discover more about God’s purpose in all of this.
“Spiritually, I was reading the Bible a lot. I was investing my life. I was hungry, but my hunger was motivated out of pain. I wanted to do anything that would get me out of this pain. I read the Bible, went to Bible studies, read books, went to seminars—anything I could because I’m a self-motivated kind of guy. But there came a point when God began to heal my heart—and the motivation moved from pain to love. I began to experience true intimacy with God. I was no longer motivated by pain but by a genuine love of the Lord. I was motivated to get to know Him better.”
Os discovered important things about himself during this time of searching. He discovered the roots of his financial and personal struggles, and as a result, the truth transformed the direction of his life. Os recalled, “My dad had been successful as a businessman. All of a sudden, he dies in a plane crash, and our family and finances are immediately impacted. The way we viewed money and security changed dramatically. We no longer had the security and privileges that came with wealth. My mom said things like, ‘We can’t do that’ or ‘We don’t have enough money.’ So at fourteen years old, I developed a subconscious motivation that said, ‘I don’t ever want to suffer a financial need again.’ So you end up working, becoming a workaholic. You work out of fear. You work to succeed on the basis that you don’t ever have to experience that again. I became a controller. I became a controller because I felt that if the people around me could fail me financially, I wanted a tight rein around those people. So, I did it in my marriage. I did it with the people who worked for me. People would say, ‘Os is a great guy—until you fail him financially. Then he gets angry and controlling.’ I didn’t know what the root of this was at the time. I thought I was just being a good steward under the Christian banner to make sure I was using God’s resources well. I learned that these were the root issues that caused me to have business issues, a marriage problem, and a relationship with God based on work and activity instead of intimacy.
“One of the most important things I discovered going through this process was that investing in others was the formula for getting out of my depression. I started to get better emotionally when I began to invest my life in other people. In late 1997, I began to write my thoughts in a daily devotional. Every morning for nine months, I would get up and write a simple message about what I was going through and how it related to my work life. I would send it off my computer to friends and associates. I noticed that when I missed a day or two, I would get an email back from my friends saying, ‘Where’s my devotional?’ It was then I realized I was meeting a need. Then, another friend who had an Internet site suggested putting the devotionals on a website. Today, it goes to more than 100,000 subscribers worldwide!”
Os’s experience was truly inspiring. Even so, whenever I interview people and ask how their lives have been transformed, I remain a bit skeptical when someone tells me that he or she is “cured” or “life is great.” In this case, it appeared the Lord had restored Os’s life back: He was leading a faith and work movement, he was happily remarried, and he made some pretty bold statements about the areas that enslaved him in the past, such as he no longer worried about money and was no longer a controller. Like many, I believe actions speak louder than words. Two actions “told” me that Os was indeed free of financial slavery. The first was Os’s decision to create a ministry whose existence is based on donations rather than profits.
Os recalled, “I used to kid one of my mentors, a guy who ‘lived by faith.’ He never knew where the next dollar would come from. I used to criticize him by saying, ‘I can’t believe you live that way. I would hate to live that way.’ So after I went through this whole adversity thing, God led me into a faith-based ministry to help people integrate their faith and work. It’s totally based on donations and help from others, which dealt with my core issue of control. I was able to remove the fear and insecurity that related to my finances to the point where I honestly don’t worry about it anymore.”
The second indication of Os’s transformation came in May 2002. Through Os Hillman’s leadership, the International Coalition of Workplace Ministries was born. To kick it off, Os assembled a conference to bring all the workplace ministry leaders together. Os risked his own money, time, and effort to create this significant opportunity. He felt this was an important meeting that needed to take place. His goal wasn’t to make money but to just break even.
I had the privilege of attending the conference. While the days were Spirit-filled, nothing moved me more than the final morning session. Os was busy in another room preparing for the end of the conference. A conference attendee walked to the microphone and thanked Os, and all the people who worked to make the conference a reality. Then the gentlemen explained that he was aware Os was going to lose money on the conference and that any donation to offset costs would be appreciated. Within a few minutes, I witnessed the audience of 125 pour out their love and support into a large basket. Like a cornucopia of fruit, the overflowing basket was passed back up to the stage. The gentleman who spearheaded the donation handed the basket to Os’s wife, who broke down in tears. Walking into the room, Os saw his wife holding the basket overflowing with money. Clearly overwhelmed by the generosity of the group, tears fell from his eyes.
Jesus once said, “You can tell a man by his fruit.” Os was experiencing the freedom that came when he relinquished his control to God. His joy didn’t come from the money. He didn’t say, “Oh boy, now I can make my second-quarter goals!” His joy came from experiencing God’s gifts. Os was free! No longer in financial slavery, he was living the successful life God gave him.
Os has written and published 25 books, equipped leaders in 26 countries, and continues to publish his daily devotional TGIF Today God Is First that is read in 105 countries.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Marketplace Leaders?
Marketplace Leaders is a voice and agent to create tools that inspire, teach, and connect Christian believers to resources and relationships in order to manifest the life of Christ in their workplace call.
Our Vision
Transform leaders to transform culture
Our Mission
Marketplace Leaders is a voice and agent to create tools that inspire, teach, and connect Christian believers to resources and relationships in order to manifest the life of Christ in their workplace call.
Strategy
Awaken and activate through teaching and training tools serving our three core audiences.
To identify, train, equip, and mobilize leaders in the seven cultural mountains for cultural influence and restoration of biblical foundations in our nation.
To convene and host events designed to teach and train our three key audiences.
One of our core tools is a FREE devotional, TGIF Today God Is First, that goes out to over a quarter of a million people all over the world and by training workplace leaders to see their work as a calling and a catalyst for change through training events and other ministry events.
What does success mean to you?
Fulfilling my life purpose under God.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.MarketplaceLeaders.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/338180072031079/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oshillman/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/oshillman
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@oshillman
