Jack C. McDowell - Theres More to Life Than Making a Living: Mastering Six Key Essentials on the Way to a Life of Significance

Copyright 2009 by Jack C. McDowell

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

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First eBook Edition: November 2009

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ISBN: 978-0-446-57171-5

This book is dedicated to the officers and lay leaders of the Salvation Army who follow in the footsteps of its founders, William and Catherine Booth, and give their lives for its mission of compassion.

J ack C. McDowell is one of the most focused people I know. At the same time, he is one of the most caring. When he sets his mind to something, he is an irresistible force for good.

How did he become a phenomenally successful fund-raiser for charitable causes, a guru of community relations, and a counselor to countless young leaders of nonprofit companies? How did this farm boy from Minnesota with a disarming intensity find himself mobilizing community leaders to tackle fund-raising goals that few thought attainableand to succeed, not only in reaching the goal, but also in exceeding it? Why is it that at seventy-eight years of age, he is still as relentless as ever in pursuing ways to make this world a better place and to help organizations like the Salvation Army serve the marginalized even more effectively?

This book is the fruit of Jacks amazing journey. It reveals his faith in God, his persistent pursuit of his calling, the significant people in his life and how they mentored him, the difficulties he faced and how he overcame them. In Theres More to Life than Making a Living, he shares the lessons he has learned and the keys to effectiveness and success he has acquired. Mastering these essentials will help you find life with purpose and personal fulfillment. They will show you how to use your unique abilities and opportunities to make a better world. They will teach you ways you can contribute to the lives of others through compassionate action. They will help you discover and live your own calling in life.

The reader who is interested in learning how others overcame weighty obstacles to find significance and fulfillment will find this book well worth the time. The reader who is looking for inspiration will find plenty to uplift. The reader who is looking for help to gain clarity about the mission to which God is calling him will find this book to be a valuable resource. The person who is looking for practical help in realizing his lifes calling will find specific action steps he can take to do so. The reader who wants his or her life to count for others will find excellent clues. This book is both an inspiring story and a useful guidebook.

In these pages you will read about a thirteen-year-old boy who sought the face of God and prayed a prayer that piloted him for the rest of his life: Help me, dear Father in heaven, to find a significant purpose for my life. The only child of a family that moved from California to a dilapidated farm in the north woods of Minnesota, he had responsibility thrown on him that very few teenagers see. During those hard years he wondered what life had in store for him. He seemed stuck in a world of limited horizons. His first taste of success on the outside came during his teenage years when he almost single-handedly raised the money for a new 4-H Club facility in the small town nearby. God had wasted no time in placing before this young man an opportunity to begin to discover his lifes purpose.

He eventually moved to Texas where he conducted a number of successful fund-raising campaigns. A few years later he met a man named Harry Ward, a Salvation Army officer who needed to raise money for his organizations work in the LouisianaArkansas area where he was divisional commander. The young fund-raiser said he would helpand the rest, as they say, is history. Over the ensuing decades he raised millions upon millions of dollars for Salvation Army units across the Southeast. Not one of his campaigns failed to reachand exceedits goal.

Gods calling found Jack McDowell, and Jack McDowell found a worthy purpose for his life. He was to use his genius for fund-raising and community relations and the self-discipline instilled during those early farm years to serve the millions of people touched by the ministry of the Salvation Army. Yes, he has been a brilliant fund-raiser, but that was not to be the sum total of his contribution. Wherever he went, he dedicated himself to raising the public profile of the Salvation Army, he strengthened its advisory boards, he mentored the younger leaders with whom he worked, and he was a voice for those without a voice.

Somewhere along the way, fortune smiled on Jack in another, most wonderful way. A beautiful lady from Salzburg, Austria, came into his life. Her name was Peggy, and she brought with her the world of opera and European art, as well as her own success in merchandising. Two very different worlds came together in their marriage: the American Midwest, a culture of new beginnings and hard work, and Salzburg, a culture of gracefulness and rich history. It was a marriage of opposites, blended by love. It still goes strong almost fifty years later.

During his early years on the farm, Jack would wonder what possibilities lay beyond the long dirt road of his farm world. One day, as a young adult, he traveled down that road for the last time. This time he kept going and didnt stop. He didnt return till twenty-five years later. It was a real homecoming, but without a crowd. He just wanted to be alone to remember his strong, loving parents and the incredible good those very tough years had done for him. He wanted to recapture that world for a brief time, then let it return to its honored place in the journey of his past. And finally, he wanted to look down that long dirt road again, and thank God for the way it had started him well on the way to a remarkable life.

Phil Needham

The Long Dirt Road to My Calling

D uring my preteen to young adult years, my parents and I lived on a farm in northern Minnesota. That farm was my world. It kept me busy from sunrise to sunset. With an ailing father and no siblings, I carried the lions share of responsibility for the outdoor farmwork.

Public school was a luxury in which I could only sporadically indulge. My home school was the pasture and the plow. My teachers were my parents and the discipline of the farm. I learned well. By the time I reached adulthood, I knew how to run a farm. My future seemed set. It would be played out in the small world of the Triple J Stock Farm. Or so it seemed.

A long dirt road ran from the farmhouse to the entrance gate. From there another long dirt road led to a very small town. I would often travel these dirt roads, wondering where they could eventually take me if I set out and didnt come back. Was there something out there beyond what I could imagine? The dirt road came to represent for me the entryway to my destiny, which I increasingly dared to believe lay beyond the boundaries of our farm.