This is Part 2 of a 3-part conversation with Robert Cortes and Pete Sanchez. In this episode, Robert shares his own journey of staying faithful to God even through failure and tough times.

Robert has a lot of business experience under his belt, first getting his start in the business world through prepaid calling cards, then found success as the owner of various cellphones stores and successful restaurants. Shortly after he got married, however, he experienced a series of failures and crises in business that led to him feeling depressed and lost. His wife, Liz, is the one who kept him on track and encouraged him to join Impact 195 at the Rock Church, the same program that had helped transform Pete’s life.

They couldn’t afford the program, but his wife didn’t hesitate. She called up family members to ask them to donate so that Robert could attend. “That was the pivotal point in my life where God came through,” Robert says, choking up at the memory. “Through that process of going to Impact, I knew I was at the right place. I knew I was going to learn my purpose.”

How can you minister to the talented entrepreneurs and professionals in your congregation? Pete appreciates it when pastors recognize his gifts and approach him with ideas or projects that he can contribute to in some way. “Pastors have got to be able to recognize that yes, we’re business owners and our businesses make a profit, but when you get somebody who’s really all about Jesus, man, we want to go all over the world. Let’s go share with everybody and steward our influence and our money to reach more people for His Kingdom.”

As Mingo points out, the first people who Jesus called to ministry were business owners themselves – fishermen. These fishermen, just like the businesspeople of today, were “people who had a hunger and a desire and a gusto to accomplish something in their own right,” and Jesus called them to leave their nets and follow him. Mingo suggests this could be an indication of where pastors should be directing their first discipling efforts.

On the business ownership and entrepreneurial side, this means there is also a responsibility to be a good steward of the gifts God has given you and to “change your mental paradigm from going out there and creating wealth in all these businesses to going out there and making disciples,” Pete says.