From Business Success to Kingdom Impact: Mark Howard’s Unexpected Calling
What if everything you’ve learned while building your business is preparing you for a purpose you haven’t discovered yet?
For entrepreneur Mark Howard, that question became a reality at an age when many business owners begin thinking about slowing down.
After decades in the precast concrete industry, Mark had built a successful company, developed a strong work ethic, and learned how to lead people. But at 55 years old, an unexpected encounter with legendary football coach Joe Gibbs changed the direction of his life.
What began as a personal decision to follow Christ eventually grew into a prison ministry helping incarcerated men earn college degrees and become spiritual leaders.
In Episode 49, Mark shares how God took the skills he developed in business and used them to open doors he never imagined walking through.
Finding Faith at 55
Mark spent much of his life focused on work, family, and coaching high school football.
He started his precast concrete company in 2003 with just three people: himself, his son, and one employee. His original goal was modest. If they could sell three loads of concrete products each week, they could make a decent living.
Over the next two decades, the company grew significantly. By the time Mark sold the business, it was shipping approximately 35 loads a day.
Yet despite that success, something important was missing from his life.
On May 26, 2012, Mark attended a Game Plan for Life event featuring Joe Gibbs and pastor Tony Evans.
At the event, Mark made a decision that would change his future. At 55 years old, having never seriously engaged with the Bible, he committed his life to Christ.
He remembers telling God that he had spent the first 55 years doing things his own way and was ready to spend whatever time he had left doing things God’s way.
He had no idea where that commitment would lead.
When Business Skills Become Ministry Tools
After reading Gibbs’ book Game Plan for Life, Mark began thinking about how its lessons on relationships, finances, and personal responsibility might help incarcerated men prepare for life outside prison.
There was one problem: Mark had never taught a class.
Nevertheless, he developed a curriculum and approached the local sheriff’s department about teaching inmates.
The department agreed, and Mark began working with a small group of men each week.
Eventually, he shared what he was doing with Joe Gibbs, whose grandsons Mark had coached in high school football. Gibbs encouraged him to expand the work.
Through new relationships, visits to other prison programs, and partnerships with Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, that initial effort eventually grew into something much larger.
Today, the program offers qualifying incarcerated men the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree in pastoral studies with a minor in counseling.
Graduates can then serve as ministers in other prisons throughout North Carolina.
At the time of the conversation, Mark shared that 61 graduates were serving in 15 prisons across the state.
What began with one businessman willing to teach a small class had developed into a ministry reaching far beyond anything he originally envisioned.
The Skills You Already Have May Be More Valuable Than You Think
One of the most interesting parts of Mark’s story is that he didn’t abandon everything he knew when he entered ministry.
He brought his business experience with him.
Years of operating a concrete company had taught him the importance of showing up early, solving problems, managing people, paying attention to details, and staying committed when circumstances became difficult.
Those same abilities proved valuable when he helped develop an educational program inside a prison system.
Building partnerships, navigating construction needs, coordinating schedules, and managing obstacles all required skills he had already developed as an entrepreneur.
It’s an important reminder for Christian business owners.
The lessons you’re learning in the workplace may have a purpose far beyond the workplace.
Leadership, organization, persistence, financial stewardship, and the ability to build relationships can all become valuable tools for serving others.
You don’t necessarily need an entirely new set of abilities to pursue a new calling.
Sometimes God uses the abilities you’ve been developing for years.
The Power of Relationships and Mentorship
Mark’s friendship with Joe Gibbs played a significant role in his journey.
Gibbs was more than a successful NFL coach. He was also an accomplished businessman whose experience gave Mark someone to turn to for advice about hiring, investments, and important business decisions.
Their relationship also allowed Mark to witness how Gibbs navigated personal suffering, including the loss of both of his sons.
Seeing someone maintain his faith through difficult circumstances left a lasting impression on Mark.
Their relationship illustrates a valuable lesson: meaningful partnerships are about more than professional connections.
They offer opportunities to learn, encourage one another, and grow through experiences that can’t always be navigated alone.
For faith-driven entrepreneurs, building relationships with people who demonstrate both wisdom and strong character can shape not only how we lead our businesses, but how we live.
Success Looks Different When You See Lives Changed
After years of building a profitable business, Mark now speaks about success in a different way.
One of his greatest joys comes during graduation ceremonies at the prison.
He describes watching parents enter the prison to see their sons receive college degrees. Many of these men are serving life sentences or extremely long prison terms.
For their families, graduation represents an accomplishment they may never have imagined.
Mark also shares the story of a former inmate who attended his early classes and later asked him for a job.
Mark hired him. The man eventually earned his commercial driver’s license, became a truck driver, and later accepted a sales position with another company.
Years afterward, he contacted Mark with an unexpected update.
One of the stores assigned to his sales territory was the very store he had robbed years earlier.
The place connected to one of his worst decisions had become part of his new career.
Stories like these remind Mark why the work matters.
Financial success can create opportunities, but seeing another person’s life change brings a different kind of satisfaction.
Don’t Wait Until You Have Everything Figured Out
Toward the end of the conversation, Mark offers advice for business owners who sense they may be called to something more.
His encouragement is simple: don’t be afraid to get involved.
Mark didn’t begin with a detailed plan for building a statewide prison ministry.
He started by reading a book, developing a few lessons, and asking whether he could teach a class.
Each step helped reveal the next opportunity.
He encourages entrepreneurs to experiment with small, manageable commitments to discover where their interests, abilities, and opportunities intersect.
Rather than immediately walking away from a business or making a dramatic life change, begin exploring ways to serve.
Volunteer. Teach. Mentor. Build relationships. Look for needs you may be uniquely equipped to meet.
You may discover that your next calling grows out of a simple decision to become involved.
Your Greatest Impact May Still Be Ahead
Mark Howard’s story challenges the assumption that success and significance are always the same thing.
He built a successful company, but one of the most meaningful chapters of his life began when he was 55 years old.
His journey also challenges the idea that pursuing God’s calling always requires leaving the business world behind.
For years, Mark continued operating his concrete company while helping establish and grow the prison ministry.
His business skills didn’t become irrelevant. They became part of how he served.
For Christian entrepreneurs, that’s an encouraging perspective.
The work you’re doing today may be teaching you more than how to earn a living.
It may be preparing you to lead, give, serve, and make a difference in ways you cannot yet see.
The question isn’t simply what you can build with your business. It’s what God might accomplish through the person you’re becoming while building it.
Listen to Episode 49
Hear Mark Howard’s full conversation about discovering faith at 55, building a successful business, learning from Joe Gibbs, and helping transform lives through prison ministry.
Listen to the full episode: [Episode Link]
This episode is sponsored by Anchor Investments, whose mission is to build America’s most generous real estate company.
From Business Success to Kingdom Impact: Mark Howard’s Unexpected Calling
What if everything you’ve learned while building your business is preparing you for a purpose you haven’t discovered yet?
For entrepreneur Mark Howard, that question became a reality at an age when many business owners begin thinking about slowing down.
After decades in the precast concrete industry, Mark had built a successful company, developed a strong work ethic, and learned how to lead people. But at 55 years old, an unexpected encounter with legendary football coach Joe Gibbs changed the direction of his life.
What began as a personal decision to follow Christ eventually grew into a prison ministry helping incarcerated men earn college degrees and become spiritual leaders.
In Episode 49, Mark shares how God took the skills he developed in business and used them to open doors he never imagined walking through.
Finding Faith at 55
Mark spent much of his life focused on work, family, and coaching high school football.
He started his precast concrete company in 2003 with just three people: himself, his son, and one employee. His original goal was modest. If they could sell three loads of concrete products each week, they could make a decent living.
Over the next two decades, the company grew significantly. By the time Mark sold the business, it was shipping approximately 35 loads a day.
Yet despite that success, something important was missing from his life.
On May 26, 2012, Mark attended a Game Plan for Life event featuring Joe Gibbs and pastor Tony Evans.
At the event, Mark made a decision that would change his future. At 55 years old, having never seriously engaged with the Bible, he committed his life to Christ.
He remembers telling God that he had spent the first 55 years doing things his own way and was ready to spend whatever time he had left doing things God’s way.
He had no idea where that commitment would lead.
When Business Skills Become Ministry Tools
After reading Gibbs’ book Game Plan for Life, Mark began thinking about how its lessons on relationships, finances, and personal responsibility might help incarcerated men prepare for life outside prison.
There was one problem: Mark had never taught a class.
Nevertheless, he developed a curriculum and approached the local sheriff’s department about teaching inmates.
The department agreed, and Mark began working with a small group of men each week.
Eventually, he shared what he was doing with Joe Gibbs, whose grandsons Mark had coached in high school football. Gibbs encouraged him to expand the work.
Through new relationships, visits to other prison programs, and partnerships with Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, that initial effort eventually grew into something much larger.
Today, the program offers qualifying incarcerated men the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree in pastoral studies with a minor in counseling.
Graduates can then serve as ministers in other prisons throughout North Carolina.
At the time of the conversation, Mark shared that 61 graduates were serving in 15 prisons across the state.
What began with one businessman willing to teach a small class had developed into a ministry reaching far beyond anything he originally envisioned.
The Skills You Already Have May Be More Valuable Than You Think
One of the most interesting parts of Mark’s story is that he didn’t abandon everything he knew when he entered ministry.
He brought his business experience with him.
Years of operating a concrete company had taught him the importance of showing up early, solving problems, managing people, paying attention to details, and staying committed when circumstances became difficult.
Those same abilities proved valuable when he helped develop an educational program inside a prison system.
Building partnerships, navigating construction needs, coordinating schedules, and managing obstacles all required skills he had already developed as an entrepreneur.
It’s an important reminder for Christian business owners.
The lessons you’re learning in the workplace may have a purpose far beyond the workplace.
Leadership, organization, persistence, financial stewardship, and the ability to build relationships can all become valuable tools for serving others.
You don’t necessarily need an entirely new set of abilities to pursue a new calling.
Sometimes God uses the abilities you’ve been developing for years.
The Power of Relationships and Mentorship
Mark’s friendship with Joe Gibbs played a significant role in his journey.
Gibbs was more than a successful NFL coach. He was also an accomplished businessman whose experience gave Mark someone to turn to for advice about hiring, investments, and important business decisions.
Their relationship also allowed Mark to witness how Gibbs navigated personal suffering, including the loss of both of his sons.
Seeing someone maintain his faith through difficult circumstances left a lasting impression on Mark.
Their relationship illustrates a valuable lesson: meaningful partnerships are about more than professional connections.
They offer opportunities to learn, encourage one another, and grow through experiences that can’t always be navigated alone.
For faith-driven entrepreneurs, building relationships with people who demonstrate both wisdom and strong character can shape not only how we lead our businesses, but how we live.
Success Looks Different When You See Lives Changed
After years of building a profitable business, Mark now speaks about success in a different way.
One of his greatest joys comes during graduation ceremonies at the prison.
He describes watching parents enter the prison to see their sons receive college degrees. Many of these men are serving life sentences or extremely long prison terms.
For their families, graduation represents an accomplishment they may never have imagined.
Mark also shares the story of a former inmate who attended his early classes and later asked him for a job.
Mark hired him. The man eventually earned his commercial driver’s license, became a truck driver, and later accepted a sales position with another company.
Years afterward, he contacted Mark with an unexpected update.
One of the stores assigned to his sales territory was the very store he had robbed years earlier.
The place connected to one of his worst decisions had become part of his new career.
Stories like these remind Mark why the work matters.
Financial success can create opportunities, but seeing another person’s life change brings a different kind of satisfaction.
Don’t Wait Until You Have Everything Figured Out
Toward the end of the conversation, Mark offers advice for business owners who sense they may be called to something more.
His encouragement is simple: don’t be afraid to get involved.
Mark didn’t begin with a detailed plan for building a statewide prison ministry.
He started by reading a book, developing a few lessons, and asking whether he could teach a class.
Each step helped reveal the next opportunity.
He encourages entrepreneurs to experiment with small, manageable commitments to discover where their interests, abilities, and opportunities intersect.
Rather than immediately walking away from a business or making a dramatic life change, begin exploring ways to serve.
Volunteer. Teach. Mentor. Build relationships. Look for needs you may be uniquely equipped to meet.
You may discover that your next calling grows out of a simple decision to become involved.
Your Greatest Impact May Still Be Ahead
Mark Howard’s story challenges the assumption that success and significance are always the same thing.
He built a successful company, but one of the most meaningful chapters of his life began when he was 55 years old.
His journey also challenges the idea that pursuing God’s calling always requires leaving the business world behind.
For years, Mark continued operating his concrete company while helping establish and grow the prison ministry.
His business skills didn’t become irrelevant. They became part of how he served.
For Christian entrepreneurs, that’s an encouraging perspective.
The work you’re doing today may be teaching you more than how to earn a living.
It may be preparing you to lead, give, serve, and make a difference in ways you cannot yet see.
The question isn’t simply what you can build with your business. It’s what God might accomplish through the person you’re becoming while building it.
Listen to Episode 49
Hear Mark Howard’s full conversation about discovering faith at 55, building a successful business, learning from Joe Gibbs, and helping transform lives through prison ministry.
Listen to the full episode: [Episode Link]
This episode is sponsored by Anchor Investments, whose mission is to build America’s most generous real estate company.