Marketplace ministry
From a video interview by At Work On Purpose
Sean Kouplen grew up on a farm, but ended up in leadership at a rapidly growing community bank. As Sean’s vision for faith at work expanded in the marketplace, he pondered the truth that he was stewarding 160 hours per month of each employee’s work, whereas each of those same employees spent only 1.7 hours per month at church. In other words, Sean had 94 times more spiritual access to his employees than church pastors. Here are some insights from his journey into marketplace ministry:
I have been in banking since 1995. I was promoted very, very early - I was a bank president when I was 24 years old. Today, we have about 230 employees. We're in seven markets and have a couple billion dollars in assets. But what is amazing is the Lord really took over our company.
I accepted Jesus Christ when I was eight years old and was raised Southern Baptist. My faith relationship was very much based upon fear and that did not sound appealing to me, so I wanted to go the other way. Thankfully, about 14 years ago, I was involved with the discipleship program that really changed my life. It showed me how much Jesus loved me. I began to build an intimate relationship with him, and that has led to some pretty interesting instructions from him.
So here's just a few examples. About nine years ago, I was in church, and I get a very clear leading that I should start a daily devotional for my team here at the bank. I said, "Well, this must be 1960s God, because that is illegal, and I can't do that." and so I ignored it. Well, thankfully He did not leave me alone. I began to study and I realized it was not illegal that I could offer it. I just couldn't require anybody to attend the devotional. So on one of the scariest days of my life, I stood up in our employee meeting and I said, "Hey guys, starting tomorrow at 8:15am we are going to have a daily devotional, and it's completely voluntary. It's just something I feel like I'm supposed to do personally, and please join me."
Well, the next morning when I got there, I was expecting, you know, standing room only, and there were only six other people. Felt a little bit of a let down. Thankfully, the next day, there were 56. The next day, there were about 117 including me. [Since then, it has gone outside the company as a telephone call in, and today, that same morning devotional has had over 300,000 unique callers. All 50 US states are represented and 4 foreign countries, and it is just as simple as it was the day that it started. It now starts at 8:17am and goes to 8:30am.]
Well, that really showed me what the Lord could do in a workplace. And so my faith was really boosted by that experience. And so soon thereafter, one morning in prayer, the Lord shared with me that I should start a prayer breakfast, a business prayer breakfast here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That very day, at lunch, I was with a friend of mine who said, "You know, Sean, we used to have this prayer breakfast here in Tulsa. It was magical. People came from all over to attend. It stopped several years ago. You ought to start that." So I thought, "Well, that was quick." That was a very fast confirmation.
So in all of our locations now we have what are called "Faith in Business" events where we bring in sponsors and have a speaker that just talks about what the Lord has done in their lives. It has been wonderful.
About two years ago, I got this very clear leading that I was praying and the Lord said, "You have other people in your company that want to pray." I don't fight it anymore, so I sent out an email to all of my employees, and it just said, "Hey guys, if anybody is interested in joining a prayer team, please let me know. We'll pray for our employees, our communities, our customers." About 80 individuals have signed up - an 80 person prayer team. We have had many prayers answered. Our internal auditor is the leader of our prayer team and she tracks all the outcomes from every prayer. We had 157 answered prayers last year and we're ahead of that so far this year. So Lord is doing great things.
We also have a chaplain, we have a faith based book club, and all of this has turned into a really magical culture, and one in which our employees feel a tremendous sense of love.
I had completed a term as Secretary of Commerce for our governor here in Oklahoma, and I felt the Lord turning the page for me, I now had a lot more time. So I really began to fervently pray about what is next. The intersection of faith and work was definitely where He wanted me to focus my giftings and my resources and connections. But I just didn't really know what that looked like, because there are many wonderful faith at work ministries and I don't want to compete - just help. And so on a flight from Tulsa to Dallas, I was praying about this. We've taken off. I closed my eyes. Two numbers became very clear to me, 160 divided by 1.7. 160 was the number of hours our employees work in a month, and 1.7 was the number of hours that they went to church. The Lord basically said, "Sean, you have my children in your care 94 times more than even those that are coming into a church. You are a shepherd. The reason I gave you this responsibility was to be a shepherd and to bring them to me."
A couple of days later, I had a very clear dream. In it, I had come back from one of our faith and business events and I sat down at my desk. To my left, there was this enormous wall between me and my employees. And the Lord showed me that myself and many other Christian business leaders will go get filled up and have all these great experiences at an event. Then when we come back, none of it gets to our employees. None of it. I felt very convicted.
These experiences led to the creation of what is now the 94x Movement. 94x's purpose is to let any leader within a business know that you can bring in your faith and also how to do that. We've studied hundreds of companies and what they've done within their businesses. It's led to large summits, tens of thousands of members, and it is just it's beyond what we ever dreamed it could be. But I do believe it is just beginning.
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From a video interview by At Work On Purpose, 04/03/2025