October 14, 2025 • 19 mins
Merrill Oster grew up on a farm and eventually was a successful business man in farm futures in 16 countries, among other business endeavors. See how he and his wife prayed their way into a calling that would lead to decades of purpoose.
In his golden years now, Merrill has a new venture: equipping retired business leaders to pray and serve their communities for Christ.
Merrill was blown away when his Pinnacle Forum group prayed to mentor young men and in walked Caleb, who fit the description of their bold prayers. Merrill became the story behind Caleb’s One80. This episode features Merrill’s One80, including the fire that was the impetus to bringing Merrill to saving faith, his rise to success, and how he boldly wears his faith on his sleeves.
If you need inspiration on God's path for you in your Golden Years, be inspired by Merrill's One80.
Helpful links:
Caleb Jue's One80, scroll to episode 101
Christian Mentoring, helpful resources from Cru.org
Halftime, the Christian university for the second half of your life
Equipping seniors to pursue God's calling, Finishing Well Ministries
People Merrill Mentions:
Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Cru.org
Henry Blackaby, biblical teacher
Bob Buford, founder of Halftime.org
Let us know what you thought of the show!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Announcer (00:02):
Welcome to One80.
Transforming testimonies fromnext door to across the globe.
Be amazed at how God works tobring people to Himself.
Share today's One80 with afriend.
It might be the best news theyhear today.
Merrill Oster (00:21):
And so we were praying specifically that the
Lord might show us anotheropportunity.
And then these guys showed up.
Lord, I'm saying, Lord, this isof you.
Then I went back to my forum.
I told the guys, and it was aspine-tingling experience for
all of us because we thoughtthat, you know, that was a very
(00:42):
specific answer to prayer.
Margaret Ereneta (00:46):
There's always a story behind the story.
Somebody who's helping makesomeone else's testimony through
the Lord.
And Merrill Oster is one ofthose.
And I didn't know histestimony, but I knew it was
great.
And I said, come on in, we'regonna record it along with
Caleb.
And so here is the testimony ofMerrill Oster.
(01:07):
We normally start testimoniesat the beginning of someone's
spiritual journey, but sinceMerrill is a mentor to Caleb, I
wanted to start about justhearing his career path.
This is Margaret Ereneta.
Welcome to Merrill's One80.
Merrill Oster (01:25):
My career path started as a farm boy in Iowa,
and so I learned to work on thefarm.
And that really got me started,realizing that uh I could make
a living if I rolled up mysleeves, and the more I worked,
the more my dad would give meallowances and pay and what have
you.
So he taught me how to work.
That's probably one of the bestlessons I learned in life.
(01:46):
I graduated at Iowa StateUniversity in about two years
and ten months.
I was in a hurry because uh Ihad to pay for my own education,
and the quicker you got out ofcollege, the quicker you had to
stop paying money.
Master's degree from Wisconsin,a radio broadcaster for four or
five years in my early days,after a very dramatic experience
of waiting on the Lord, prayingwith my wife, starting a
(02:08):
business on my own.
One of the businesses that Ithen uh launched as a result of
that was called ProfessionalFarmers of America.
We taught farmers how to usecommodity futures to manage
their risk in agriculture.
That led us to CommoditiesMagazine, which was a different
audience.
We had about 30,000professional farmers of America.
We did seminars for them, I didspeeches for them, teaching
(02:30):
them how to buy land andbasically manage their risk,
financial risk.
And uh from that, we bought amagazine called Commodities
Magazine, grew it up to FuturesMagazine, bought a small company
that had data from all theexchanges in the world.
We formed a news organizationcalled Osterdow Jones, put our
news into that data system andspread that all over the world,
(02:53):
had offices in 16 countries in acompany called Future Source.
I began selling these companieswhen I was 55 years old and uh
finished selling all of them uhby the time I was about uh 70, I
guess.
While I was doing thesecompanies, I also had a couple
of side ventures.
I owned farmland and I had afull-time farming operation.
(03:14):
We raised 26,000 head of hogs,6,000 acres of corn soybeans.
So I was considered to be uh anup-and-comer uh when I was
probably in my 30s.
People had their eyes on me.
I had opportunities to uh uh begroomed for uh governor and
what have you, and had the ideain a very early age that God
(03:34):
gave me businesses for aspecific purpose that had to do
with my spiritual upbringing.
Margaret Ereneta (03:41):
And now we'll hear about Merrill's spiritual
upbringing.
Merrill Oster (03:45):
My spiritual upbringing, you might say that I
was born with a spiritual spoonin my mouth.
My grandparents were allChristians.
Several of mygreat-grandparents were
Christians, my dad and mom wereChristians, uh my school
teachers for the most part wereChristians.
I learned Bible verses both inSunday school and in daily
(04:06):
vacation Bible school and in thecountry school that I went to,
which was a small school ofabout uh 30 kids in seven
different grades.
So I learned at a very earlyage to um understand the
principles of the Bible.
I was so excited as a seven oreight-year-old about the stories
of the Bible.
I can still remember theexcitement of uh the Old
Testament stories of uh Noah andDaniel and all these things.
(04:30):
It wasn't, however, sinking inat a very deep level.
It was not till I was 13 yearsold that my my grandmother, she
had witnessed to me.
She lived with us because mygrandpa passed away, she moved
in with us because she couldn'tafford a house of her own.
So it was like having a secondmother in the house.
And she would uh remind mebiblical truths like, be sure
(04:52):
your sins will find you out, andthings like that.
At a very early age, Iunderstood, I understood exactly
what it was that I had to do.
I had at some point acceptJesus Christ as my Savior.
But this was knowledge Icarried in my head at age 13.
My grandma was sitting besideme in the middle of a storm.
(05:14):
We were down in the basementsitting on five-gallon pails,
and grandma said, Meryl, you'rejust making too much work out of
this.
You've got all this headknowledge.
She quoted Acts 16, 31, justbelieve on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you'll be saved.
And it was like scales came offof my eyes.
(05:37):
The Holy Spirit just unveiledhimself to me in such a way that
I said, Oh, I believe I'msaved.
She says, Well, of course youare.
Now go upstairs and tell yourdad.
So I did.
The next morning, she says,Now, Merrill, when you get to
school, be sure to tell yourfriend Jim Sluter that you got
(05:58):
saved.
He went to our same church.
I did.
I told Jim Sluter.
Jim said, What, you?
He knew I was a bit of acharacter.
About uh 10 years later, we'reboth freshmen at Iowa State
University.
Jim Sluter gives me a call.
He says, Merrill, I got thisguy that I'm talking to about
salvation.
He says, uh, his name is Al.
(06:18):
I need you to get over here andhelp me.
I said, Well, Jim, you and Iwent to the same church.
You know all the same stuff Ido.
He said, But I'm not saved andyou are.
Get over here, Merrill.
So I jumped in the car, go overto his fraternity house, and
spent the next couple of hourstalking to him.
Don't know how, whateverhappened to Al, but about a
month later, my friend Jim cameto Christ in a very dramatic and
(06:42):
wonderful way.
It's amazing how the Lord usesinteresting little situations
like that to shape our spirituallife.
Margaret Ereneta (06:51):
Those interesting little situations.
When you grew up in the church,we call that a when faith gets
real testimony.
Merrill's faith is about to getvery real.
Listen in.
Merrill Oster (07:03):
Things were going along pretty well at Iowa State
until one morning I was cominghome from my radio broadcast.
I was coming this way, and theflow of students was this way
going back to campus.
And one of my girlfriends, nota girl who was her friend, not a
girlfriend, you know thedifference.
Uh, she said, Merrill, yourhouse is on fire.
I said, Sure.
What else is new, Jan?
(07:23):
She says, Merrill, your houseis on fire.
I knew she was serious.
I took off on a dead run.
I get to the farmhouse and Ifind that only one person lost
everything that he had.
The fire went right up thecorner of my house.
My roommate was on studentteaching.
I lost everything I had.
Went home.
My dad, mom bought me a batchof new clothes.
(07:44):
I came back and bought newbooks.
I was on campus the next day,and I bumped into a kid from my
hometown.
I tell him my plight.
He said, Well, we happen tohave a place to stay in our
apartment house.
Come join us.
I did.
He was a committed Christianbeliever who became a
significant spiritual mentor.
(08:05):
First night we were there, hesaid, Merrill, about 9 o'clock,
we we all stop and we have aword of prayer.
And uh so I stopped and we hada word of prayer.
We got on our knees and weprayed.
I didn't think I'd ever prayedon my knees much before.
So for the rest of my collegecareer, I was praying every
night on my knees with theseguys.
These other guys my age werepouring into my life at that
(08:29):
time, had a dramatic impact onmy spiritual life.
So uh, fast forward that story,my children and my wife and I,
we would at the end of the daygo to one of our beds and we
would pray on our knees.
Carol and I started doing thatfrom the night we were we were
married.
And uh frequently I would beoff in my office doing
(08:52):
something, and Carol would bereading the story to the kids
and we'd get ready to bed.
And I'd hear somebody yell downthe hall, Dad, it's time to
pray.
Twenty years later, I'm at myson's house.
He's putting, his, his wife isputting my grandson to bed, and
I hear this little guy yell,Dad, it's time to pray.
(09:14):
It just said chills right downmy spine.
This stuff really works.
It passes on from generation togeneration.
So that's the sort of thepersonal side of my spiritual
life.
The Lord has given meopportunities uh over the years
to have an impact on uh beinvolved, I would say, in in
lots of other people's lives,just as many other people have
(09:37):
had an opportunity invest in mylife.
Margaret Ereneta (09:41):
Next, Merrill talks about stewardship.
His grandma had a big impact inhis life, and stewardship is
what Merrill lives by now, andthis is how it started.
Listen in.
Merrill Oster (09:58):
She could talk about uh cookies and Christ all
in the same sentence.
It just seemed so natural forher.
And so as a result of that, Ithink it became uh easier and
easier for me when I began to uhstep out on my own and form a
company uh to dedicate it.
My grandma said, When I got amy when I got my car at age 16,
uh, now you know that car is notyours, Merrill.
(10:21):
You're just a steward.
That car is owned by the Lord.
Use it to advance the cause ofChrist.
So I began dragging my buddiesto church on Sunday nights.
And um, I know that at leastone of them went on to become a
missionary.
Uh, another one died in a caraccident a year or so later, and
I just trusted during that timethat he got saved.
So I think that the fact thatother people were investing in
(10:44):
me caused me to want to investin other people, and it's very
humbling because you realizethat it is not it is not our
works, but it is the Holy Spiritwithin us that is working
through us.
And every once in a while Ithink that uh as we grow in our
Christian faith and we'regrowing in our financial success
(11:04):
at the same time, there is astruggle that takes place
between the time we need tospend with our family, the time
we need to spend in ourbusiness, uh, and the time that
we need to spend, you know,looking for new opportunities.
And uh it's in that area whereI believe that the teachings of
the Word of God cause us tomanage our time in such a way
(11:25):
that we get things done asChristians that other people
cannot get done.
You know, we are taught toredeem our time.
Uh, we are taught to setpriorities.
Paul said, seek ye first thekingdom of God, and all these
things will be added onto you.
And so I think that having avision of what you want to do.
Without vision, people perish,having a clear vision of what
(11:45):
you want to do in your career,which I had at a fairly early
stage when I went on my own.
I didn't do it casually.
We I prayed about it forprobably two or three months
with Carol.
And one morning when we were inIowa, I took a walk from the
farmhouse up to the top of a ahill about a quarter mile away.
I just talked out loud to theLord all the way up the top of
the hill, you know, kind ofasking him and begging him to
(12:08):
give me a sense of directionhere.
Should I, you know, I've got agood job right now.
Should I step out with two kidsand a and a wife and have no
income next month?
And uh got to the top of thehill and turned around and it
was like getting saved all overagain.
I had that sense of uh peacethat just flooded my soul.
And so my start in business hada lot to do with a really a
(12:33):
God-given sense of peace thatyes, you're supposed to be doing
this.
And so the spiritual aspect ofmy life began to develop, and I
began to say to myself thatLord, I've got this business
now.
What is it that I should do?
How can how can I make this acompany that really advances the
cause of Christ in a uniqueway?
So I began to write up a seriesof uh principles that we stand
(12:57):
for in our company and pass themout to new employees as they
came in.
And they basically were basedon biblical principles without
chapter and verse.
Then we prayed before theairplane took off when we went
to seminars.
Uh when we did seminars and Igave speeches, we always
mentioned the reason for theoptimism that we had.
I always made it kind of light.
I said, I know I'm optimisticabout the future because I've
(13:20):
read to the end of the book, andI'm talking about the good
book.
I know how it turns out.
Those who walk with the Lordend up in the winner's circle.
That's why I'm optimistic.
People like to be like to hireme to give speeches because I
get them fired up.
I'm all optimistic.
I don't want to leave themwithout them knowing that uh
there's a real reason for myoptimism.
It has nothing to do with mysuccess or my my cunningness, my
(13:44):
sharpness in business.
It has to do uh with the factthat I know how things are all
going to turn out.
But I was very clear uh and letpeople know where I stood.
And of course, occasionallypeople would come up to me after
a speech and say, you knowwhat, you really uh carry your
religion on your sleeve.
And my answer was, Oh, I'm sosorry.
I really wanted to show allover.
(14:06):
So uh it's it's been awonderful ride.
I'm now um in my 80s, and thethe guys that used to be my
mentors, uh they're now with theLord.
So I'm being mentored by peers,and so my pinnacle forum guys
uh help encourage me, hold meaccountable.
(14:26):
And I'm still excited aboutlife.
I just expect every day, asHenry Blackaby taught me years
ago, every person that comesinto your life, Merrill, he's
either got something for you toknow or you've got something he
needs to know.
Look at it as an appointmentfrom God.
And so that's how I look at thefuture.
Margaret Ereneta (14:47):
We are live with an audience with this show,
and so the audience askedMerrill a question about the
Pinnacle Forum, and as it turnsout, Merrill started the
Pinnacle Forum all over thenation.
So he talks about that.
It's so neat.
Merrill Oster (15:03):
Why is it called Pinnacle?
A great question.
We call it Pinnacle Forumbecause we meet guys at the very
pinnacle of their success andwe help them go higher.
And we did this in an areacalled Pinnacle Peak in
Scottsdale, Arizona.
So before we launched thisproject, I took two of my
buddies who I had recruited tohelp us get this thing off the
(15:26):
ground, and we all three of ushad been involved in other
ministries before.
Said, we don't want to bestarting something just to build
our own eagles.
Let's get before the Lord.
We crawled up to the top ofPinnacle Peak, not the very top,
but as far as you could gowithout hooks and ladders.
Uh, and before there weretrails there, and we sat for an
(15:47):
hour and prayed and sung hymns,uh, asking the Lord for his
guidance over Pinnacle Forum.
So that also played a role inwhy it's called Pinnacle Forum.
And so we were prayingspecifically that the Lord might
show us another opportunity.
So then these guys showed up,and um, there was a real
(16:08):
specific moment.
They had done the work in myyard.
They were standing with me inmy office, and I had just given
them the little the book, uhPurpose-Driven Life.
And then I asked them, by theway, what high school did you
guys go to?
They said, Metea.
Lord, I'm saying, Lord, this isof you.
(16:32):
Then I went back to my forum, Itold the guys, and it was a
spine-tingling experience forall of us because we thought
that, you know, that was a veryspecific answer to prayer.
Margaret Ereneta (16:44):
I wish I asked, but someone in the
audience asked this greatquestion.
What advice do you have forother people who are 65 thinking
about retiring and just kickingback?
What would you say?
Merrill Oster (16:56):
Uh I met uh Bob Buford in business.
Uh we were in young president'sorganization together.
I hired him to be a part of myadvisory board.
And one of the questions thathe asked me, Merrill, do you
want to spend the second half ofyour life doing the same thing
that you did in the first halfof your life?
And I said, you know, probablynot.
(17:18):
I like to start things and turnthem over to somebody else and
then do something new.
Uh so you know, the idea ofchanging, he said, Well, I
suggest that you cultivate theChristian involvement and use
that as a prelude for a secondcareer.
So when you sell yourcompanies, you will have already
had some test runs doingvarious things.
And of course, that fit exactlyright into what Dr.
(17:40):
Bright was telling me that Ishould do, and that was to start
an organization which becamePinnacle Forum.
So that idea struck me when Iwas probably uh in my early 50s,
I began selling companies, andI got rid of all of them by the
time I was uh uh 60 or 65, anduh then really threw myself
(18:03):
totally into doing the thingsthat I had already started.
So it wasn't like I retired andthen had to start something.
If if a person is getting towrite a retire and he knows the
Lord and he's wondering what todo, I would say find a
parachurch organization and joinup.
Pinnacle Forum was just one ofmany organizations uh that have
a specific uh purpose in mind,and that is to continue to
(18:25):
accelerate the spiritual growthprocess in each of our lives
with the idea, not that we justbecome more spiritual and more
Christ-like, but somethingresults from that, that we can
engage ourselves in spiritualpractices uh that change our
community.
And we've got some of thosethings going on in our community
and in various communitiesaround the country that are a
(18:46):
direct result of that kind ofactivity of our forum.
So, you know, God is still aliveand well and doing work today
and in our lives and doingmiracles in our lives.
And uh all we did was play avery, very small little role.
All plants, Apollos waters, butit got God who gives the
increase.
So we did either some plantingor some watering.
(19:07):
But in the end, it's the HolySpirit that really is what
clicks in these guys' minds andand uh causes them to want to do
the same.
Audience (19:16):
Thank you so much.
Margaret Ereneta (19:24):
Thanks for listening today.
I hope Merrill's testimonyencouraged you, especially if
you're a senior, if you're hisage and you don't know how the
Lord can use you.
You'll have a lot of ideas withwhat Merrill shared today.
We will link those in our shownotes.
Announcer (19:51):
Exalt Christ, advance his gospel.
Welcome to One80.
Transforming testimonies fromnext door to across the globe.
Be amazed at how God works tobring people to Himself.
Share today's One80 with afriend.
It might be the best news theyhear today.
Merrill Oster (00:21):
And so we were praying specifically that the
Lord might show us anotheropportunity.
And then these guys showed up.
Lord, I'm saying, Lord, this isof you.
Then I went back to my forum.
I told the guys, and it was aspine-tingling experience for
all of us because we thoughtthat, you know, that was a very
(00:42):
specific answer to prayer.
Margaret Ereneta (00:46):
There's always a story behind the story.
Somebody who's helping makesomeone else's testimony through
the Lord.
And Merrill Oster is one ofthose.
And I didn't know histestimony, but I knew it was
great.
And I said, come on in, we'regonna record it along with
Caleb.
And so here is the testimony ofMerrill Oster.
(01:07):
We normally start testimoniesat the beginning of someone's
spiritual journey, but sinceMerrill is a mentor to Caleb, I
wanted to start about justhearing his career path.
This is Margaret Ereneta.
Welcome to Merrill's One80.
Merrill Oster (01:25):
My career path started as a farm boy in Iowa,
and so I learned to work on thefarm.
And that really got me started,realizing that uh I could make
a living if I rolled up mysleeves, and the more I worked,
the more my dad would give meallowances and pay and what have
you.
So he taught me how to work.
That's probably one of the bestlessons I learned in life.
(01:46):
I graduated at Iowa StateUniversity in about two years
and ten months.
I was in a hurry because uh Ihad to pay for my own education,
and the quicker you got out ofcollege, the quicker you had to
stop paying money.
Master's degree from Wisconsin,a radio broadcaster for four or
five years in my early days,after a very dramatic experience
of waiting on the Lord, prayingwith my wife, starting a
(02:08):
business on my own.
One of the businesses that Ithen uh launched as a result of
that was called ProfessionalFarmers of America.
We taught farmers how to usecommodity futures to manage
their risk in agriculture.
That led us to CommoditiesMagazine, which was a different
audience.
We had about 30,000professional farmers of America.
We did seminars for them, I didspeeches for them, teaching
(02:30):
them how to buy land andbasically manage their risk,
financial risk.
And uh from that, we bought amagazine called Commodities
Magazine, grew it up to FuturesMagazine, bought a small company
that had data from all theexchanges in the world.
We formed a news organizationcalled Osterdow Jones, put our
news into that data system andspread that all over the world,
(02:53):
had offices in 16 countries in acompany called Future Source.
I began selling these companieswhen I was 55 years old and uh
finished selling all of them uhby the time I was about uh 70, I
guess.
While I was doing thesecompanies, I also had a couple
of side ventures.
I owned farmland and I had afull-time farming operation.
(03:14):
We raised 26,000 head of hogs,6,000 acres of corn soybeans.
So I was considered to be uh anup-and-comer uh when I was
probably in my 30s.
People had their eyes on me.
I had opportunities to uh uh begroomed for uh governor and
what have you, and had the ideain a very early age that God
(03:34):
gave me businesses for aspecific purpose that had to do
with my spiritual upbringing.
Margaret Ereneta (03:41):
And now we'll hear about Merrill's spiritual
upbringing.
Merrill Oster (03:45):
My spiritual upbringing, you might say that I
was born with a spiritual spoonin my mouth.
My grandparents were allChristians.
Several of mygreat-grandparents were
Christians, my dad and mom wereChristians, uh my school
teachers for the most part wereChristians.
I learned Bible verses both inSunday school and in daily
(04:06):
vacation Bible school and in thecountry school that I went to,
which was a small school ofabout uh 30 kids in seven
different grades.
So I learned at a very earlyage to um understand the
principles of the Bible.
I was so excited as a seven oreight-year-old about the stories
of the Bible.
I can still remember theexcitement of uh the Old
Testament stories of uh Noah andDaniel and all these things.
(04:30):
It wasn't, however, sinking inat a very deep level.
It was not till I was 13 yearsold that my my grandmother, she
had witnessed to me.
She lived with us because mygrandpa passed away, she moved
in with us because she couldn'tafford a house of her own.
So it was like having a secondmother in the house.
And she would uh remind mebiblical truths like, be sure
(04:52):
your sins will find you out, andthings like that.
At a very early age, Iunderstood, I understood exactly
what it was that I had to do.
I had at some point acceptJesus Christ as my Savior.
But this was knowledge Icarried in my head at age 13.
My grandma was sitting besideme in the middle of a storm.
(05:14):
We were down in the basementsitting on five-gallon pails,
and grandma said, Meryl, you'rejust making too much work out of
this.
You've got all this headknowledge.
She quoted Acts 16, 31, justbelieve on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you'll be saved.
And it was like scales came offof my eyes.
(05:37):
The Holy Spirit just unveiledhimself to me in such a way that
I said, Oh, I believe I'msaved.
She says, Well, of course youare.
Now go upstairs and tell yourdad.
So I did.
The next morning, she says,Now, Merrill, when you get to
school, be sure to tell yourfriend Jim Sluter that you got
(05:58):
saved.
He went to our same church.
I did.
I told Jim Sluter.
Jim said, What, you?
He knew I was a bit of acharacter.
About uh 10 years later, we'reboth freshmen at Iowa State
University.
Jim Sluter gives me a call.
He says, Merrill, I got thisguy that I'm talking to about
salvation.
He says, uh, his name is Al.
(06:18):
I need you to get over here andhelp me.
I said, Well, Jim, you and Iwent to the same church.
You know all the same stuff Ido.
He said, But I'm not saved andyou are.
Get over here, Merrill.
So I jumped in the car, go overto his fraternity house, and
spent the next couple of hourstalking to him.
Don't know how, whateverhappened to Al, but about a
month later, my friend Jim cameto Christ in a very dramatic and
(06:42):
wonderful way.
It's amazing how the Lord usesinteresting little situations
like that to shape our spirituallife.
Margaret Ereneta (06:51):
Those interesting little situations.
When you grew up in the church,we call that a when faith gets
real testimony.
Merrill's faith is about to getvery real.
Listen in.
Merrill Oster (07:03):
Things were going along pretty well at Iowa State
until one morning I was cominghome from my radio broadcast.
I was coming this way, and theflow of students was this way
going back to campus.
And one of my girlfriends, nota girl who was her friend, not a
girlfriend, you know thedifference.
Uh, she said, Merrill, yourhouse is on fire.
I said, Sure.
What else is new, Jan?
(07:23):
She says, Merrill, your houseis on fire.
I knew she was serious.
I took off on a dead run.
I get to the farmhouse and Ifind that only one person lost
everything that he had.
The fire went right up thecorner of my house.
My roommate was on studentteaching.
I lost everything I had.
Went home.
My dad, mom bought me a batchof new clothes.
(07:44):
I came back and bought newbooks.
I was on campus the next day,and I bumped into a kid from my
hometown.
I tell him my plight.
He said, Well, we happen tohave a place to stay in our
apartment house.
Come join us.
I did.
He was a committed Christianbeliever who became a
significant spiritual mentor.
(08:05):
First night we were there, hesaid, Merrill, about 9 o'clock,
we we all stop and we have aword of prayer.
And uh so I stopped and we hada word of prayer.
We got on our knees and weprayed.
I didn't think I'd ever prayedon my knees much before.
So for the rest of my collegecareer, I was praying every
night on my knees with theseguys.
These other guys my age werepouring into my life at that
(08:29):
time, had a dramatic impact onmy spiritual life.
So uh, fast forward that story,my children and my wife and I,
we would at the end of the daygo to one of our beds and we
would pray on our knees.
Carol and I started doing thatfrom the night we were we were
married.
And uh frequently I would beoff in my office doing
(08:52):
something, and Carol would bereading the story to the kids
and we'd get ready to bed.
And I'd hear somebody yell downthe hall, Dad, it's time to
pray.
Twenty years later, I'm at myson's house.
He's putting, his, his wife isputting my grandson to bed, and
I hear this little guy yell,Dad, it's time to pray.
(09:14):
It just said chills right downmy spine.
This stuff really works.
It passes on from generation togeneration.
So that's the sort of thepersonal side of my spiritual
life.
The Lord has given meopportunities uh over the years
to have an impact on uh beinvolved, I would say, in in
lots of other people's lives,just as many other people have
(09:37):
had an opportunity invest in mylife.
Margaret Ereneta (09:41):
Next, Merrill talks about stewardship.
His grandma had a big impact inhis life, and stewardship is
what Merrill lives by now, andthis is how it started.
Listen in.
Merrill Oster (09:58):
She could talk about uh cookies and Christ all
in the same sentence.
It just seemed so natural forher.
And so as a result of that, Ithink it became uh easier and
easier for me when I began to uhstep out on my own and form a
company uh to dedicate it.
My grandma said, When I got amy when I got my car at age 16,
uh, now you know that car is notyours, Merrill.
(10:21):
You're just a steward.
That car is owned by the Lord.
Use it to advance the cause ofChrist.
So I began dragging my buddiesto church on Sunday nights.
And um, I know that at leastone of them went on to become a
missionary.
Uh, another one died in a caraccident a year or so later, and
I just trusted during that timethat he got saved.
So I think that the fact thatother people were investing in
(10:44):
me caused me to want to investin other people, and it's very
humbling because you realizethat it is not it is not our
works, but it is the Holy Spiritwithin us that is working
through us.
And every once in a while Ithink that uh as we grow in our
Christian faith and we'regrowing in our financial success
(11:04):
at the same time, there is astruggle that takes place
between the time we need tospend with our family, the time
we need to spend in ourbusiness, uh, and the time that
we need to spend, you know,looking for new opportunities.
And uh it's in that area whereI believe that the teachings of
the Word of God cause us tomanage our time in such a way
(11:25):
that we get things done asChristians that other people
cannot get done.
You know, we are taught toredeem our time.
Uh, we are taught to setpriorities.
Paul said, seek ye first thekingdom of God, and all these
things will be added onto you.
And so I think that having avision of what you want to do.
Without vision, people perish,having a clear vision of what
(11:45):
you want to do in your career,which I had at a fairly early
stage when I went on my own.
I didn't do it casually.
We I prayed about it forprobably two or three months
with Carol.
And one morning when we were inIowa, I took a walk from the
farmhouse up to the top of a ahill about a quarter mile away.
I just talked out loud to theLord all the way up the top of
the hill, you know, kind ofasking him and begging him to
(12:08):
give me a sense of directionhere.
Should I, you know, I've got agood job right now.
Should I step out with two kidsand a and a wife and have no
income next month?
And uh got to the top of thehill and turned around and it
was like getting saved all overagain.
I had that sense of uh peacethat just flooded my soul.
And so my start in business hada lot to do with a really a
(12:33):
God-given sense of peace thatyes, you're supposed to be doing
this.
And so the spiritual aspect ofmy life began to develop, and I
began to say to myself thatLord, I've got this business
now.
What is it that I should do?
How can how can I make this acompany that really advances the
cause of Christ in a uniqueway?
So I began to write up a seriesof uh principles that we stand
(12:57):
for in our company and pass themout to new employees as they
came in.
And they basically were basedon biblical principles without
chapter and verse.
Then we prayed before theairplane took off when we went
to seminars.
Uh when we did seminars and Igave speeches, we always
mentioned the reason for theoptimism that we had.
I always made it kind of light.
I said, I know I'm optimisticabout the future because I've
(13:20):
read to the end of the book, andI'm talking about the good
book.
I know how it turns out.
Those who walk with the Lordend up in the winner's circle.
That's why I'm optimistic.
People like to be like to hireme to give speeches because I
get them fired up.
I'm all optimistic.
I don't want to leave themwithout them knowing that uh
there's a real reason for myoptimism.
It has nothing to do with mysuccess or my my cunningness, my
(13:44):
sharpness in business.
It has to do uh with the factthat I know how things are all
going to turn out.
But I was very clear uh and letpeople know where I stood.
And of course, occasionallypeople would come up to me after
a speech and say, you knowwhat, you really uh carry your
religion on your sleeve.
And my answer was, Oh, I'm sosorry.
I really wanted to show allover.
(14:06):
So uh it's it's been awonderful ride.
I'm now um in my 80s, and thethe guys that used to be my
mentors, uh they're now with theLord.
So I'm being mentored by peers,and so my pinnacle forum guys
uh help encourage me, hold meaccountable.
(14:26):
And I'm still excited aboutlife.
I just expect every day, asHenry Blackaby taught me years
ago, every person that comesinto your life, Merrill, he's
either got something for you toknow or you've got something he
needs to know.
Look at it as an appointmentfrom God.
And so that's how I look at thefuture.
Margaret Ereneta (14:47):
We are live with an audience with this show,
and so the audience askedMerrill a question about the
Pinnacle Forum, and as it turnsout, Merrill started the
Pinnacle Forum all over thenation.
So he talks about that.
It's so neat.
Merrill Oster (15:03):
Why is it called Pinnacle?
A great question.
We call it Pinnacle Forumbecause we meet guys at the very
pinnacle of their success andwe help them go higher.
And we did this in an areacalled Pinnacle Peak in
Scottsdale, Arizona.
So before we launched thisproject, I took two of my
buddies who I had recruited tohelp us get this thing off the
(15:26):
ground, and we all three of ushad been involved in other
ministries before.
Said, we don't want to bestarting something just to build
our own eagles.
Let's get before the Lord.
We crawled up to the top ofPinnacle Peak, not the very top,
but as far as you could gowithout hooks and ladders.
Uh, and before there weretrails there, and we sat for an
(15:47):
hour and prayed and sung hymns,uh, asking the Lord for his
guidance over Pinnacle Forum.
So that also played a role inwhy it's called Pinnacle Forum.
And so we were prayingspecifically that the Lord might
show us another opportunity.
So then these guys showed up,and um, there was a real
(16:08):
specific moment.
They had done the work in myyard.
They were standing with me inmy office, and I had just given
them the little the book, uhPurpose-Driven Life.
And then I asked them, by theway, what high school did you
guys go to?
They said, Metea.
Lord, I'm saying, Lord, this isof you.
(16:32):
Then I went back to my forum, Itold the guys, and it was a
spine-tingling experience forall of us because we thought
that, you know, that was a veryspecific answer to prayer.
Margaret Ereneta (16:44):
I wish I asked, but someone in the
audience asked this greatquestion.
What advice do you have forother people who are 65 thinking
about retiring and just kickingback?
What would you say?
Merrill Oster (16:56):
Uh I met uh Bob Buford in business.
Uh we were in young president'sorganization together.
I hired him to be a part of myadvisory board.
And one of the questions thathe asked me, Merrill, do you
want to spend the second half ofyour life doing the same thing
that you did in the first halfof your life?
And I said, you know, probablynot.
(17:18):
I like to start things and turnthem over to somebody else and
then do something new.
Uh so you know, the idea ofchanging, he said, Well, I
suggest that you cultivate theChristian involvement and use
that as a prelude for a secondcareer.
So when you sell yourcompanies, you will have already
had some test runs doingvarious things.
And of course, that fit exactlyright into what Dr.
(17:40):
Bright was telling me that Ishould do, and that was to start
an organization which becamePinnacle Forum.
So that idea struck me when Iwas probably uh in my early 50s,
I began selling companies, andI got rid of all of them by the
time I was uh uh 60 or 65, anduh then really threw myself
(18:03):
totally into doing the thingsthat I had already started.
So it wasn't like I retired andthen had to start something.
If if a person is getting towrite a retire and he knows the
Lord and he's wondering what todo, I would say find a
parachurch organization and joinup.
Pinnacle Forum was just one ofmany organizations uh that have
a specific uh purpose in mind,and that is to continue to
(18:25):
accelerate the spiritual growthprocess in each of our lives
with the idea, not that we justbecome more spiritual and more
Christ-like, but somethingresults from that, that we can
engage ourselves in spiritualpractices uh that change our
community.
And we've got some of thosethings going on in our community
and in various communitiesaround the country that are a
(18:46):
direct result of that kind ofactivity of our forum.
So, you know, God is still aliveand well and doing work today
and in our lives and doingmiracles in our lives.
And uh all we did was play avery, very small little role.
All plants, Apollos waters, butit got God who gives the
increase.
So we did either some plantingor some watering.
(19:07):
But in the end, it's the HolySpirit that really is what
clicks in these guys' minds andand uh causes them to want to do
the same.
Audience (19:16):
Thank you so much.
Margaret Ereneta (19:24):
Thanks for listening today.
I hope Merrill's testimonyencouraged you, especially if
you're a senior, if you're hisage and you don't know how the
Lord can use you.
You'll have a lot of ideas withwhat Merrill shared today.
We will link those in our shownotes.
Announcer (19:51):
Exalt Christ, advance his gospel.
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